The following is an extract from DailyFinance's recent article.

Hit By the Epsilon Security Breach? Here's How to Protect Your Personal Information

If you're a customer of Best Buy (BBY), Citigroup (C), or any one of the 2,200 global brands that relies on email marketing giant Epsilon, you may have received a rather alarming notice over the weekend. Epsilon has reported a security breach that may have compromised your email address and name.

While it may at first sound like the identity thieves walked away with very little, the potential for damage can be great, say security experts. For example, armed with your name, email address, and the name of a company with whom you do business, identity thieves can send an authentic-looking but bogus Best Buy email asking you to supply your credit card information or other personal information. This can later be used to pilfer your financial accounts.

Security experts note, however, that consumers can take a number of actions to safeguard their personal information in the wake of the Epsilon hack attack.

"Most likely this information will be used for phishing attacks. If they know the email list you subscribe to, it's more likely they can write a convincing email to deceive you," says Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer for security software firm Secunia.

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