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 Data Breach

Marry targeting with inventory

David L. Smith, Mediasmith February 01, 2012

The digital landscape is confusing. Anybody who has viewed the Terry Kawaja Display Landscape slide knows this. Despite that, we have the opportunity to do the targeting we've only dreamed of before.
 

Zappos data breach exposes names, email addresses

January 16, 2012

A criminal accessed Zappos consumer account information, the online retailer said in a Jan. 15 blog post.
 

Senate bills would require data-breach notification

July 29, 2011

Companies that suffer a data breach would be required to notify the federal government, law enforcement and consumers if a bill introduced this week by US Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) is signed into law.
 

Agencies educate clients on privacy

July 01, 2011

As the online consumer privacy debate takes shape on Capitol Hill, direct marketing agencies are educating their clients on how to actively engage consumers though mobile and social media but stay within legal and ethical bounds.
 

Epsilon beefs up email security 92 days after data breach

June 29, 2011

Marketing services firm Epsilon has added new security enhancements to its email marketing platform in collaboration with Verizon Business, Epsilon president and CEO Bryan Kennedy told Direct Marketing News on June 28. The new features include enhanced protection for Epsilon's information technology (IT) infrastructure and the ability to track malicious IP addresses.
 

Citigroup targeted in latest customer data breach

June 09, 2011

Citigroup said June 9 that it recently discovered an unauthorized person hacked the files of about 1% of its Citi North America bank card accounts.
 

Data breaches at ESPs spread security concerns throughout marketing sector

Vicki Powers June 01, 2011

A recent report from Proofpoint, an email security supplier, found 35% of US companies investigated a suspected email leak of confidential or proprietary information in the past 12 months.
 

Q&A: Greg Cangialosi, president and CEO, Blue Sky Factory

May 10, 2011

Greg Cangialosi, the president and CEO of Blue Sky Factory, discusses social data, security issues and split testing.
 

Sony database breach exceeds 100 million customers

May 04, 2011

An ongoing Sony Corporation investigation into the April database breach of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) systems revealed hackers may have accessed the personal information of an additional 24.6 million customers, the company said in a statement May 3.
 

The Children's Place database hacked; email addresses exposed

April 21, 2011

Retail store chain The Children's Place is notifying customers that an unauthorized third party accessed its email address database. The company said in a statement that no personal information, other than email addresses, was obtained, and that the data was stored with an external email service provider.
 

Reduce risk of email data breach

Steve Webster, chief strategy officer and cofounder, iPost April 12, 2011

The recent headlines about email data breaches have rightly caused all of us to review our security procedures and policies. No system is perfectly secure, but there are steps to take in order to avoid a breach.
 

Epsilon security breach exposes consumer email addresses

April 04, 2011

Email marketing vendor Epsilon said late last week that it detected a security breach March 30 that compromised the names and email information of several clients' customer databases. Impacted companies include JPMorgan Chase & Co., Walgreens, Best Buy, Ameriprise Financial and TiVo, according to media reports. Epsilon said April 6 that the breach affected about 2% of its total client base, and that no personal identifiable information, such as Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or account information, was accessed.
 

Google settles FTC privacy charge

March 30, 2011

Google settled Federal Trade Commission charges on March 30 that it violated consumers' privacy, as well as its own policies, when it launched social network Google Buzz in February 2010. The FTC had charged Google with violating the Federal Trade Commission Act by using Gmail customers' information for Google Buzz without their consent, according to the FTC.
 

IAB launches data collection council

February 28, 2011

The Interactive Advertising Bureau expanded its data use and control task force into a permanent "data council" on February 28. The group will address the collection and use of consumer data and related issues. IAB will launch initiatives through the group to educate marketers and agencies about data gathering, and to clarify what kinds of data can be collected through media buying.
 

Data theft threatens those who underestimate risk

February 09, 2011

The results of the Small Merchant Data Security Survey, sponsored by First Data and the National Retail Federation, might leave consumers feeling a bit naked in the wind.
 

Nielsen in midst of 'erroneous' data glitch

November 05, 2010

Nielsen said today that it may have under counted website traffic data at a number of US websites.
 

Lawmakers want answers on Facebook privacy

October 19, 2010

The critically acclaimed film 'The Social Network' probably isn't the only thing bothering Facebook executives this week.
 

Twitter settles data privacy complaint with FTC

June 24, 2010

Microblogging site Twitter settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived customers and put their privacy at risk by failing to safeguard their personal data. It marks the first time the FTC has brought a data security case against a social network.
 

Editorial: Marketers can take steps to prevent data breaches

August 31, 2009

Arrests were made last week in the largest data breach case ever - 130 million credit card numbers were stolen earlier this year from five corporate entities. The good news is that the US Department of Justice is on the case. But this was only the latest in a long line of data fraud incidents.
 

Three men arrested in largest-ever data breach

August 18, 2009

Three men were indicted in New Jersey on August 17 for stealing more than 130 million credit and debit card numbers, according to the US Department of Justice. It is the largest hacking and identity theft case ever prosecuted by the Justice Department.
 

Inbox Insider: E-mail leaks can challenge businesses

August 12, 2009

E-mail is one of the most important tools of communication for companies, but security risks can make using the channel a challenge. As we saw with the Twitter hack last month, sensitive information in circulating via e-mail and if this is hacked can leave a company's private plans exposed. In addition, a company can be at risk if their customer's private data becomes exposed.
 

Network Solutions starts healing process after data breach

July 27, 2009

Network Solutions, a provider of Web-related services for small and medium businesses, has started reaching out to customers about a data breach that was discovered in early June. Credit card information on 573,928 individual consumers may have been compromised in the breach, which Network Solutions publicly reported at the end of the day on July 24.
 

Cloud data faces security scrutiny

July 27, 2009

A recent hack of Twitter corporate data off of the Google cloud server, combined with increasing consumer wariness, has made security "in the cloud" a buzz-worthy issue this summer.
 

Direct Group forms unit to handle data breach-related communications

July 15, 2009

Direct marketing services provider Direct Group has formed a new Compliance & Critical Communications business unit, which will help clients plan for and execute compliance communications in response to data breaches involving identity- or privacy-related information. Direct Group reports that the number of data breaches increased 47% in 2008, as tallied by the Identity Theft Resource Center, with a total of 656 reported breaches compared to 446 in 2007.
 

Top Tips: Keeping your databases safe and secure

June 01, 2009

As data collection becomes increasingly complex, sophisticated and essential for marketers, protecting the security of those databases is more important than ever. We asked several top experts to offer their best tips for how marketers can make sure their data stays safe.
 

Comcast usernames found on file-sharing site

March 18, 2009

Comcast is doing some clean-up work this week on a recently discovered data breach. An initial list of 8,000 Comcast usernames and passwords was unearthed over the weekend on the document-sharing Web site Scribd. Comcast was alerted to the list Monday and immediately had it pulled down for analysis, said Charlie Douglas, director of communications for Comcast's high-speed Internet product. The company is now working with "the proper authorities" to investigate the leak.
 

Monster suffers data breach

January 28, 2009

Job-seeker Web site Monster Worldwide has detected a data breach that could potentially affect millions of its users.
 

Heartland Payment Systems says processing system was breached

January 21, 2009

Princeton, NJ-based payments processor Heartland Payment Systems said today its processing system was the victim of a security breach last year but that no merchant data or cardholder Social Security numbers, personal identification numbers (PIN), addresses or telephone numbers were involved.