In the last couple of days, there have been all sorts of reports that Epsilon Data Management had a security breach and many of their client’s email lists have been released. Eplison clients range from Best Buy & Target to Disney Vacations. I didn’t really think about how much this was going to impact everybody until I got a notice from my Marrtiott Rewards membership saying that my email address was part of the data breach.
For more info on the security breach check out: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215527/FAQ_Epsilon_email_breach
Please take a minute to review the following recommendations for your email:
- Communicating via email is NOT secure. Always be careful about what information you send in an email. NEVER send your credit card or personal information!
- Pay attention to a sender’s email address. You may find that you recognize the email address, but then realize that their is a spelling error in the domain or it ends in something other than .ca or .com like it usually does. Look for spelling errors or grammatical errors in the message or the tone that makes it sound “urgent”.
- Phishing attacks are becoming more and more common. Phishing is an attempt to aquire senstive information such as usernames, personal information, passwords and credit card numbers by masquerading as a trustworthy source. Beware of emails asking you to click on a link to verify personal information. As a result of the Epsilon data breach, watch for these sort of emails to be coming from what looks to be a trustworthy source. If you aren’t expecting this sort of request, make sure that you contact their customer service to validate the request.
- Change your password! If it’s been a while since you’ve changed your password – do it now. Make sure that you include lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers and special characters.
These sort of precautions are very important as spam filters will not catch this sort of email – according to their systems, the email came from a reputable source.
Take Care and Be Safe!
