Dell warns Australian customers on irregular emails after Epsilon security breach

Computer maker Dell has warned its Australian customers are at risk of “irregular or unsolicited emails” after a security breach at email service provider Epsilon, which may have revealed its customers’ names to unauthorised parties.

Dell has told customers who had chosen to receive emails from the Australian office that after the email system at Epsilon, which is one of Dell’s global email service providers, was exposed to “unauthorised entry”, there was a possibility its customers’ first and last names had been accessed.

While stressing no personally identifiable information was at risk, Dell urged Australian customers to be “alert to suspicious emails requesting your personal information.”

The warning covers emails from Dell or “any other company.”

A spokeswoman for the Australian Communications and Media Authority told SmartCompany that the regulator usually approaches this kind of occurence from a “consumer protection perspective of ‘beware of spam.’”

She stressed the compromising of Dell’s email service provider is not a Spam Act issue. “Any spam that may or may not be sent using the information that may or may not have been acquired through the compromise is where the Spam Act comes into it,” the spokeswoman said.  

Dell’s warning is believed to be the first delivered specifically to Australian customers since Epsilon announced the breach last week.

The US-based email and online marketing company is reported to send 40 billion emails per year and the breach has already affected a number of companies including McKinsey & Co, Kraft, Visa and TiVo.