Arrests in ESP data breach

The FBI announced today arrests of three people in the ESP data breaches from the compromises of various ESPs a few years ago.
Krebs on Security: Feds Indict Three in 2011 Epsilon Hack
Department of Justice: Three Defendants Charged with One of the Largest Reported Data Breaches in U.S. History
After stealing over a billion addresses from 8 ESPs, the lists were monetized through affiliate marketing. The owner of the affiliate program was one of the people arrested.
More on Monday.

Engagement, ISPs and the EEC
February 2015 – The month in email

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Password security

Many of us have lots of accounts on various networking sites, but how much attention do we pay to password security?
If you haven’t heard, someone managed to compromise the Associated Press’ twitter account today. Not only was the account compromised, but they put out a fake tweet claiming that there were explosions at the White House and President Obama was injured.
DowPlungeA funny prank? Maybe. But tweets like this have a real world effect. For instance, the stock market plunged 140 points after the initial reports, rebounding when people realized it wasn’t true.
It’s not clear how the AP twitter password was compromised. There are many possibilities including classic social engineering through to compromised machines inside AP with password sniffers on them.
The lesson here is that we’re all targets, even ‘soft’ seeming targets like social media accounts. Practice safe computing.

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