US marketing firm Epsilon has released a statement saying lists of names and emails held for clients have been breached by an outside source.
According to the statement only names and email addresses were taken, meaning a number of people may soon be receiving an increased level of spam in their inboxes. Epsilon is the world’s largest in email marketing; their database in massive and global in scope. The firm sends 40 billion plus e-mail messages a year from over 2,500 clients. Clients include Best Buy, Capital One, Walgreens, TiVo, and Barclay's. Those companies, and others, are now scrambling to email their customers and explain their info may be among the names and email addressed breached. Clients which as financial organizations have been quick to point out no financial information was even provided to Epsilon and remains secure. Essentially, names and email addresses, which are arguably often public anyhow, are all that has been released. Similar breaches in the past at other companies saw Social Security numbers released, mailing addresses and phone numbers. Nevertheless, a likely impending increase of email spam will still be a nuisance.