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

Lindsay due in court today and is likely to be sent to jail for probation violation
Talks breakdown between Lohan's camp and prosecution - 'there will be NO plea deal'
Jewellery store owners set to auction the necklace off

She’s certainly no stranger to life behind bars and she has been adamant she will not be returning.

Lindsay Lohan, who is appearing in court today, will not be accepting a plea deal that will send her to jail in a grand theft case, is believed.

The Mean Girls star has pleaded not guilty to a felony grand theft that was filed after a jewelry store reported the starlet had taken $2,500 necklace without permission.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz has said if Lohan accepts a plea agreement offered by prosecutors last month that he will send her to jail for the fourth time in as many years.

A source close to the actress said that Lohan does not intend to accept the plea offer at Thursday's hearing. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of Lohan's case.

U.S. website TMZ have posted contradicting reports and said that Lindsay is considering accepting a plea.

The gossip site posted: 'The fact that Lindsay is actually thinking about accepting Judge Schwartz' offer is a huge step -- because she has been adamant up to this point that she will NOT go back to jail.'


Schwartz will lay out the next steps of the case and may schedule a preliminary hearing during which prosecutors will present their evidence.

If Lohan is ordered to stand trial Schwartz has warned the starlet that she may be sent to jail for violating her probation on a 2007 drunken driving case.
Lohan's return to court comes days after surveillance footage of her trying on necklaces at Kamofie & Co., which reported the necklace stolen on Jan. 22. It was eventually given by a Lohan associate to detectives, who had already obtained a search warrant for the actress' Venice home.

Entertainment Tonight aired the footage, which showed Lohan texting, pacing and talking to a store clerk for nearly 45 minutes. The actress wore the necklace she is accused of stealing for roughly 25 minutes, according to the show, before the clerk escorted Lohan out, smiled and held a door open as she walked out.

The footage was obtained by a commercial images division of the AP and licensed exclusively to Entertainment Tonight.

The source told said that Lohan's defense team thinks the video's release and its sale will benefit the actress' defense.

Lohan's court troubles have long overshadowed her once-promising acting career. A former star in Disney films such as ‘Freaky Friday’ and ‘Herbie Fully Loaded,’ her career has been stalled since she was arrested twice in 2007 and later charged with drunken driving and drug possession.

In the past 10 months, Lohan has been jailed twice and sent to rehab twice for probation violations. A judge ordered her to undergo three months of treatment at the

Betty Ford Center, and it was within three weeks of her release that she was accused of stealing the necklace.

While the theft case has caused more uncertainty for Lohan, 24, the incident may go on to benefit others.

The owners of Kamofie & Co. announced Wednesday that they will auction the necklace and donate the proceeds to an unspecified charity after the theft case is resolved. The item remains in the custody of authorities.

‘We have already publicly released the videotape which speaks for itself and accurately records the incident, and we believe the next step toward achieving closure is to donate the now-famous jewelry to charity,’ store owners Sofia and Geoff Kaman said in a statement released Wednesday morning.







Source: Dailymail