This week’s revelations about the data breach at Epsilon Data Management has a lot of people spooked. Hackers stole an email list with millions of names and email addresses. The list of affected companies is growing every day. The US Secret Service and the US Congress are getting involved and demanding answers. While the professionals determine the causes and ways to prevent this from happening again, businesses and consumers need to be on the alert for phishing scams.
These are commonly email scams where you receive an email that looks legitimate and asks you to give up some personal information. Spear phishing is where the bad guys have information that is more personal and makes the email seem more legitimate. Since the Epsilon database had names, email addresses and companies where you do business, hackers and criminals can be very specific when they target users. If I do business with Marriott and see an email from them, I will probably assume it’s genuine.
Watch this great video to make sure you aren’t a victim.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSoXBOOK65Q[/youtube]