Banks, retailers warn of massive e-mail breach

 

With the possible theft of millions of consumer e-mail addresses from an advertising company, several large companies have started warning customers to expect fraudulent e-mails that try to coax account login information from them.
A dozen companies said over the weekend that hackers may have learned their e-mail addresses because of a security breach at a Dallas-based company called Epsilon that manages e-mail communications.
Among the affected companies are banks like Capital One Financial, Barclays Bank, U.S. Bancorp, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, and retailers like Best Buy, TiVo, Walgreen and Kroger.
The College Board, the not-for-profit organization that runs the SATs, also warned that a hacker may have obtained student e-mail addresses.

Walt Disney Co.’s travel subsidiary, Disney Destinations, sent e-mails warning customers on Sunday.
Epsilon said Friday that its system had been breached, exposing e-mail addresses and customer names but no other personal information.
The e-mail addresses could be used to target spam. It’s also a standard tactic among online fraudsters to send e-mails to people, purporting to be from a large bank and asking them to login in at a site that looks like the bank’s site. Instead, the fraudulent site captures their login information and uses it to access the real account.
The data breach could make these so-called “phishing” attacks more efficient, by allowing the fraudsters to target people who actually have an account with the bank.
Epsilon sends more than 40 billion e-mails annually and has more than 2,500 clients.
Source:Usatoday

JENNIFER BEALS has turned down an opportunity to appear on DANCING WITH THE STARS.

JENNIFER BEALS, the American actress and star of the movie 'Flashdance', has turned down an offer to appear as a contestant on the next series of DANCING WITH THE STARS, according to People Magazine. Beals, who is currently starring in the Fox drama 'The Chicago Code', says she will not be following in the footsteps of recent winner JENNIFER GREY, saying, "I am not a dancer. They asked me and I said no. You could back up a truck to my door filled with cash and I wouldn't do it". The 47-year-old said she visited the DANCING WITH THE STARS' ballroom with her actress friend MARLEE MATLIN several years ago and was surprised by the intimidating atmosphere, saying, "The sound of the audience is so loud and the energy in there is so intense. I wanted to start crying just in feeling for her. I joked with Marlee and said, 'You don't know how lucky you are you can't hear this'", the actress added, "The noise level is so intense and people's excitement level is so intense. I could never. I'm not that kind of a performer".


Beals famously played 'Alexandra Owens' in the 1993 dance movie 'Flashdance', alongside MICHAEL NOURI. The film, produced by JERRY BRUCKHEIMER, grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite opening to negative reviews from critics.