Target and Marriott Customers Victims of US Data Breach, Among Other Large Companies

Target and Marriott International, are just two of many companies that have come forward to announce to their customers that their names and email addresses had been exposed in a massive online data breach.

Both announced on April 4 that last week, a computer hacker penetrated the online marketer Epsilon, which controls the customer email databases for a wide range of companies, which includes clients from Tivo to Citigroup to Walgreens.

Hilton Hotels also informed its customers that their names or email addresses had been part of the data breach.

Epsilon is an online marketing unit of Alliance Data Systems Corp. It sends more than 40 billion email ads and offers annually, which usually go to people who register for a company's website or who give their email addresses while shopping.

Target sent an email to customers on Monday evening, telling them that their email addresses may have been compromised but "no personally identifiable information, such as names and credit card information, was involved."

The company said in an emailed statement on Monday night that "email addresses used for promotions and marketing were exposed."

Marriott responded to the Epsilon data breach on its website on Monday, saying that "the unauthorized person(s) had access to names and email addresses only."

The company said the hackers "did not have access to sensitive customer information, such as physical addresses, point balances, account logins and passwords, credit card information or other personal data."

About 50 companies were affected by the security breach.

Epsilon first warned of the incident April 1, but didn't express how many of its 2,500 clients were at risk. In a brief statement posted to Epsilon's website and updated April 4, the company said that approximately two percent of total clients were the hacker's victims.

For consumer inquiries contact Epsilon at 303-410-5369.