Epsilon, a Texas-based company that runs marketing and customer loyalty campaigns via email for some of the country’s biggest banks, credit card companies and retailers, including American Express, Best Buy, Citibank, Capital One, Kroger, Visa and U.S. Bank, announced a few days ago that a number of names and email addresses they have used in campaigns had been stolen by hackers.

What that means is those names and emails can now be used in targeted email attacks to try and steal information from users, since there are specific, valid email address to send scam/spam emails to. This is sometimes called spear phishing attacks.

You might have received a warning from your bank or credit card company about this. Pay heed and be particularly careful when opening email from unknown sources.  Also expect a possible increase in spam emails in the near future. Click here and here for standard defensive actions in situations like this one.