In the news....data breach at Epsilon and what it means to you!

Below is the text of an email sent to customers of The Kimmel Group, Inc. regarding the Epsilon data breach.

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Hello,

As some of you are aware, there was a recent data breach at Epsilon, a leading email marketing service provider to major corporations. You can read more here

I am sending this letter to all Kimmel Group customers to outline what steps you should take to protect yourselves.

While Epsilon claims that only email addresses and names have been obtained, there is the possibility that a criminal may use this information to obtain more from you.

Since these criminals know what list you were subscribed to, they may try to "spoof" or impersonate that company by sending you a message that looks as though it came from that actual company.

If you receive any messages requesting personal information such as address, credit card number, bank account, etc.. DO NOT RESPOND TO THE EMAIL. DELETE IT!

Also, DO NOT CLICK ON ANY LINKS IN THE EMAIL.

As a practice, if you are asked to provide any information via email, please verify the request by telephone using the phone number you were previously provided AND NOT THE NUMBER IN THE EMAIL.

Identity theft is on the rise, especially in our current economy. Please take the time to safeguard your personal information.

In my 21 years of email administration/consulting, I have never witnessed so many schemes and ploys via email. The problem will continue to grow.

Just a few minutes ago, I received a suspicious message claiming to be from "Bank of America", requesting that I follow a link to verify my account information. I do not own a Bank of America account so I immediately knew it was fraudulent. If I did own a "BOA" account, I would call customer service to verify.

Please take the time to follow these few guidelines listed below:

1. Change passwords to online accounts quarterly
2. If you need to write down passwords, store the list in a safe place away from your computer
3. If you own a Blackberry, use the "Password Keeper" application to store that information
4. To keep your business email inbox relatively spam-free, subscribe to marketing lists using a "free" account like gmail, Hotmail, yahoo or your internet service provider.
5. Use anti-virus software on all personal computers and keep it up to date. Perform a full-scan weekly.