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Verizon customers exposed in massive U.S. data breach

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Big fallout possible from email raid

Tue, Apr 5 2011

NEW YORK | Wed Apr 6, 2011 6:06am EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Customers of Verizon Communications had their email addresses exposed in a massive online data breach last week, according to an email to customers obtained by Reuters.

In what could be one of the biggest such attacks in U.S. history, a computer hacker penetrated the online marketer Epsilon, which controls the customer email databases for a broad swath of companies.

Customers of about 50 companies, from banks to retailers and hotels, had their names or email addresses exposed in the attack.

Verizon, the largest U.S. mobile telephone carrier, informed customers on Tuesday that it was part of the Epsilon data breach.

"Epsilon has assured us that the information exposed was limited to email addresses, and that no other information about you or your account was exposed," Verizon said in an email to a customer sent on Tuesday evening.

The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Maria Aspan in New York and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Bernard Orr)
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Comments (5)
janice33rpm wrote:
Breaches are a fact of life: So, how to protect yourself? We conduct regularized, quarterly (and ad hoc) security training. We followed this book’s advice: “I.T. WARS: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium.” Just Google “IT WARS” (or search Amazon) – that author has the forward view for all sorts of best practices and progressions. My copy is dog-eared and highlighted to death. Stay safe out there!

Apr 06, 2011 4:12am EDT  --  Report as abuse
derrickisONLINE wrote:
Not sure why only Verizon was mentioned in this article. In fact Epsilon has tons of huge companies including Disney, Hilton, Robert Half Technology, and a ton of other big boys.

Apr 06, 2011 9:36am EDT  --  Report as abuse
JoeMulick wrote:
My grandfather was contacted by scammers yesterday. They claimed to be my brother, and also claimed to be in a Mexican jail. They acted as if they were my brother and he had one call. They knew my grandfathers name, my brothers name and my fathers name. They had a routing number and asked him to transfer $4000 dollars immediately. All bogus information, except the routing number. These security breaches are more severe than the companies are telling us? Surprised? I know I’m not..

Apr 06, 2011 2:04pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
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