Epsilon

Attacks on Sony, others show it's open hacking season

There seems to be a groundswell of hacking activity recently. From the Epsilon breach that touched dozens of major U.S. companies and their millions of customers, and RSA replacing its customers' SecurID tokens after attacks on several defense contractors to Sony sites getting pummeled by hackers on a regular basis--all within the last few months.

What's going on?

"I truly don't think there's a higher instance of hacking right now. I think there's been a wave of media coverage," said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer of BT and one of the most … Read more

Think the cloud isn't risky? Ponder these numbers

The myriad of computing service failures during the last week or so have had me thinking back to my conversation in March with Drew Bartkiewicz. We've had Amazon Web Services fail and bring down much of the Web with it. Add to that the PlayStation Network outage, which is still unresolved and is starting to get ugly in a legal and regulatory sense for Sony. And before that there was the breach at the e-mail marketing company Epsilon.

It's as though this week was tailor-made for Bartkiewicz, who argues that companies in the cloud business--and their customers, too--are in denial about risk. And by risk I mean not the technological possibility that a service may fail to work as advertised, but in the financial liability sense.

In Amazon's case, there's not been any real discussion of financial liability. Even though several companies effectively had to pause operations during the period of its outage last week, the only compensation they seem to be getting, at least for the moment, is a credit on their bill for the time that affected systems were offline and an apology. Apologies and billing credits won't work for large companies. In a case like that, someone, somewhere has to be on the hook financially in the case of failure. … Read more

CNET to the Rescue: iPhone vs. Android!

This week, Kent German, CNET mobile phone guru, answers this vexing life question: iPhone or Android? We'll be talking about that for a bit before we get to your e-mailed, questions, many of which are related to the Epsilon breach we discussed last week with CNET reporter Elinor Mills.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us and we'll try our best to help you out.

Episode 42: iPhone vs. Android

In Epsilon breach, e-mail insecurity (roundup)

Security breach exposed names and e-mail addresses of customers of many major U.S. companies and could lead to a rise in targeted phishing attacks.

PayPal security chief on Epsilon breach and more q&a CIO Michael Barrett talks with CNET about the need to choose data outsourcers wisely in light of the Epsilon breach, why PayPal isn't re-issuing SecurIDs after the RSA breach, and other matters. (Posted in Insecurity Complex by Elinor Mills) April 9, 2011 4:00 AM PDT

Epsilon partner warned of phishing attacks months ago Near the end of last year, Epsilon partner Return … Read more

The breach felt 'round the Web (week in review)

Last week, Epsilon was a little-known e-mail marketing firm, a behind-the-scenes player in the Web-marketing world. This week, it's held a prominent place in the headlines as the target of a massive data breach that exposed names and e-mail addresses for a broad swath of customers at dozens of prominent companies.

E-mails from the likes of Citibank, Chase, Capital One, Walgreens, Target, Best Buy, TiVo, TD Ameritrade, Verizon, and Ritz Carlton--have been flooding in-boxes since Epsilon announced its system had been breached. Some people (this writer included) have reported receiving as many as four of these warnings.

Companies like … Read more

Epsilon partner warned of phishing attacks months ago

The recent data breach reported by e-mail marketing service provider Epsilon that exposed names and e-mail addresses for customers at dozens of companies comes four months after an Epsilon technology partner warned about targeted phishing attacks on e-mail service providers and on its own network.

Return Path said in late November that thousands of e-mail addresses had been stolen from its system after one of its employees clicked on a link in a phishing e-mail message. Epsilon uses Return Path's e-mail monitoring technology in the e-mail marketing services it provides to other companies.

"The employee's system was … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1443: Google's Double Rainbow Strategy (Podcast)

"Hey, Buzz Crew ..." Google seems to be building out a version of Chrome OS for tablets, which we're calling their "double rainbow" strategy: it breaks your brain. Plus, what Epsilon knew about their social phishing vulnerabilities, and when they knew it. Samsung cuts tablet pricing again, why we're never using Pandora again until we get an email from Tim Westergren, and a seriously old-school hacker story. --Molly

CNET to the Rescue: Fixing Epsilon's boo-boo

Is your e-mail address safe? Probably not. Marketing company Epsilon suffered a breach last week, and the names and e-mail addresses of customers of major online sites, like Chase, TiVo, and Target were revealed. How did this happen, and what can you do about it? Our guest, CNET News security reporter Elinor Mills, explains.

Episode 41: Fixing Epsilon's boo-boo

Who is Epsilon and why does it have my data?

If you didn't get an e-mail warning this week that your name and e-mail address were part of a database that was breached, consider yourself lucky, and unique.

E-mails from dozens of companies--including Citibank, Chase, Capital One, Walgreens, Target, Best Buy, TiVo, TD Ameritrade, Verizon, and Ritz Carlton--began flooding inboxes this week after a company called Epsilon announced that its system had been breached. Some people have reported receiving as many as four of these warnings.

Citibank is a household name, as are most of the brands on the list (which now reaches more than 55, according to this list on DataBreaches.net). … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1441: In: Living Social. Out: Groupon. So five minutes ago: Your privacy (Podcast)

In the news today, Google is coming under the antitrust microsope, your privacy is breached left, right, and center by everyone from Pandora's mobile apps to the growing Epsilon email breach scandal. The MPAA files the least shocking lawsuit ever (sorry, Zediva), two venerable tech names become one, and the leaky ship of the NY Times paywall gets yet another loophole. --Molly