From Epsilon to Omega in one easy step

David Heath
Tuesday, 05 April 2011 16:49

Business IT - Security

On April 1st, US-based Epsilon Interactive (a major email marketing firm) revealed that their system had been penetrated and customer data, specifically names and email addresses had been stolen.  Is it a case of so-what? Or what-now?

According to Epsilon they "are the world's largest permission-based email marketing provider, sending over 40 billion emails annually

"We work with over 2,500 clients, including 7 of the Fortune 10 who trust Epsilon to build and host their customer databases."

With that in mind, their announcement on April 1st (don't we all wish it were a joke) made for chilling reading.  Here it is in its entirety:

IRVING, TEXAS - April 1, 2011 - On March 30th, an incident was detected where a subset of Epsilon clients' customer data were exposed by an unauthorized entry into Epsilon's email system. The information that was obtained was limited to email addresses and/or customer names only. A rigorous assessment determined that no other personal identifiable information associated with those names was at risk. A full investigation is currently under way.

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Since this time, affected companies have been sending a boilerplate-based email (this is typical) to all affected clients advising of the breach.  Many such messages do not directly identify Epsilon, but the similarity of the text is compelling evidence.

Read on for the latest definitive list and the (scary) implications.