Hackers Steal Kroger's Customer List 185
wiredmikey writes "Kroger, the nation's largest traditional grocery retailer with more than 338,000 associates, notified customers today of a breach of the database that stores its customers' names and email addresses. The company said the incident occurred at Epsilon, the third-party vendor Kroger uses to manage its customer email database." Reader SatanClauz
SatanClauz quotes the email that went out to Kroger customers ("We were notified and became aware of unauthorized access to our email list by someone outside our company. We want to assure you that the only information that was obtained were names and email addresses."), writing "At least they were smart enough to separate the email db from the rest of customer information! — or so they say..."
Did Kroger use same service as Brookstone, others? (Score:5, Interesting)
I got the e-mail from Kroger within three hours of receiving a very similar e-mail from Brookstone. Although not identical, the two e-mails are quite similar. Foes anyone know who this e-mail service provider is and what other companies may have been affected by this? It is nice to see Kroger and Brookstone act quickly to let their customers know the extent of the data that was compromised, but if this is the fault of a common e-mail service provider I would think that many more than just two companies were affected by this, and interesting to see how different companies react to the same issue. It is also good to see that the third party e-mailer is given only the base details necessary for them to perform their function and are not provided with street addresses or other unnecessary personally identifiable information.
++++++++++++Important E-Mail Security Alert++++++++++++
Dear Valued Brookstone Customer,
On March 31, we were informed by our e-mail service provider that your e-mail address may have been exposed by unauthorized entry into their system. Our e-mail service provider deploys e-mails on our behalf to customers in our e-mail database.
We want to assure you that the only information that may have been obtained was your first name and e-mail address. Your account and any other personally identifiable information are not stored in this system and were not at risk.
Please note, it is possible you may receive spam e-mail messages as a result. We want to urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties.
In keeping with best industry security practices, Brookstone will never ask you to provide or confirm any information, including credit card numbers, unless you are on our secure e-commerce site, Brookstone.com.
Our service provider has reported this incident to the appropriate authorities.
We regret this has taken place and for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We take your privacy very seriously, and we will continue to work diligently to protect your personal information.
Sincerely,
Brookstone Customer Care