Last week, Epsilon, a major e-mail marketing firm, suffered a serious data breach, whereby hackers obtained e-mail addresses and user names for potentially millions of users who had signed up to receive e-mail updates from dozens of companies. The companies infected include banks (Capitol One, Barclay’s, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase), stores (Walgreen, Kroger, Best Buy), and other web sites (TiVo, AbeBooks, Disney).
According to information made public about this breach, only e-mail addresses and user names were harvested. However, it is possible that for some of the affected sites, you may have entered a password, and if your password techniques are not very secure, you may have used a password that you use on many sites.
If the password in question is only for logging into web sites, and not for sites where you give credit card information, you have little to worry about. But for sites affected where you have provided credit card information, it is a good idea to change your password as soon as possible. Many web sites are notifying users of the breach, but not all will do so; because of this, it’s up to you to decide whether you should change passwords on multiple web sites or not.
For now, the extent of the breach is unclear. If, indeed, only e-mail addresses and user names were obtained, the worst one can fear is a large increase in spam and phishing e-mails. Intego software can help you fight against these threats. Intego VirusBarrier X6 includes a powerful anti-phishing tool, and Personal Antispam, Intego Internet Security Barrier, is an intelligent spam filter that learns from the e-mail you receive.
