Epsilon Breach Reminds of Security Awareness

Epsilon is a marketing company that has millions of emails on file of consumers who have made purchases or are affiliated with various banks, retailers, hotels etc. Epsilon sends over 40 billion emails out a year and was recently breached in a hack attack. Consumers are now receiving breach notifications from the likes of financial institutions such as Citigroup, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase, and hotels such as the Marriot and the Hilton.

The result of the breach will mean consumers will receive phishing emails that look like one of the legitimate entities breached but are in fact fake trying to trick the victim into entering their usernames and passwords or providing personal information such as credit cards or even Social Security numbers.

This is made possible by the fact that the consumer is accustomed to receiving similar emails on a regular basis and may not be able to tell the difference between a real or fake.

This breach should unquestionably heighten consumers’ awareness of their personal security in regards to their information security and also their physical security. Criminals are targeting the public in more ways today than ever before.

Being overwhelmed and paranoid is unnecessary, but being alert and focused is essential.

A constant vigilance is required in order to protect yourself and family from the onslaught of scams and potential violence that is being perpetrated every moment of every day.

Meanwhile:

Never enter personal information into an email not initiated by you.

Never click links in an email. Go to your bookmarks or manually type in the address.

Consider changing up your email address if it has been breached.

Change all your passwords to different passwords. No two accounts should have the same password.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing home security and identity theft on TBS Movie and a Makeover.