Episilon, who are they?

Well, if you have any online relationship with any business, you probably have received an email from that business telling you that there was a data breach, blah, blah, blah.  So what is the short answer to the question?  Episilon is a third party company that pretty much handles much, if not all, of the email marketing that big companies engage in.  For example,  If you have a Best Buy account, signed up for email correspondence from them, any email you get from "Best Buy", really comes from Episilon.  Yes, we even outsource email in this country.   So somehow hackers got a hold of the email databases of all of the companies they represent.  No, allegedly no personal information was attained.  As far as we know now, they have your email address, but do not necessarily know who you are specifically.  So what you will most likely see in the upcoming weeks, if not months, is a dramatic increase in phishing attempts.  You will get an email from "insert company name here" trying to get you to click on a link to their fake website in an attempt to get you to give up personal and/or financial information.  It will be more persuasive now because they will now know what emails actually are associated with specific banks, credit cards, retailers and the like.  This will result in many more people being fooled.  The same rules apply in regards to protecting yourself from this scam.   Do not respond or click on links in emails that are telling you that your account is in danger or those that try to scare you.  If you are concerned, go to your address bar and enter the address to the website yourself, do not click on links in emails!  This post is dedicated to the 4 email alerts I got in the past two days from my accounts telling me about the goof.