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NEW YORK (Reuters) – The obloquy and e-mails of customers of Citigroup Inc and another super U.S. companies, as substantially as College Board students, were unclothed in a large and ontogeny accumulation severance after a computer coder penetrated online marketer Epsilon.

In what could be one of the large such breaches in U.S. history, a different track of companies that did playing with Epsilon stepped forward over the weekend to monish customers whatever of their electronic aggregation could have been exposed.

Drugstore Walgreen, Video functionary TiVo Inc, assign bill lender Capital One Financial Corp and teleshopping consort HSN Inc all additional their obloquy to a list of targets that also includes whatever of the nation's maximal banks.

The obloquy and electronic contacts of whatever students related with the U.S.-based College Board -- which represents whatever 5,900 colleges, universities and schools -- were also potentially compromised.

No individualized business aggregation such as assign cards or social section drawing appeared to be exposed, according to the consort statements and e-mails to customers.

Epsilon, an online marketing organisation of Alliance Data Systems Corp, said on weekday that a mortal right the consort hacked into whatever of its clients' client files. The vendor sends more than 40 billion e-mail ads and offers annually, usually to grouping who register for a company's website or who give their e-mail addresses while shopping.

"We scholarly from our e-mail provider, Epsilon, that restricted aggregation about you was accessed by an unlicensed individualist or individuals," HSN, also an e-commerce operator, said in an e-mail to customers on Sunday.

"This aggregation included your name and e-mail address and did not allow whatever business or another sensitive information. We change it was essential to inform you of this incident as presently as possible."

Citigroup client obloquy and whatever assign bill customers' e-mail addresses -- but no statement aggregation -- were part of the accumulation breach, the third-largest U.S. slope said on Saturday.

The College Board, which administers the SAT admissions tests, on Sat warned students about the severance and asked them to be cagy about receiving "links or attachments from uncharted ordinal parties," according to digit e-mails reviewed by Reuters.

The not-for-profit methodicalness is in contact with more than 7 meg students, according to its website. It did not directly convey calls for comment.

PROBING FOR ANSWERS

Law enforcement polity are investigating the breach, though it was blurred on Sun how whatever customers or students had been exposed. Epsilon is also looking into what went wrong.

"While we are cooperating with polity and doing a complete investigation, we cannot say anything else," said Epsilon spokeswoman Jessica Simon. "We can't support whatever compact or non-impacted clients, or wage a list (of companies) at this saucer in time."

Capital One, which also runs a bank, and Walgreens, the maximal U.S. drugstore, said the Epsilon coder accessed its client e-mail addresses, but no personally classifiable information.

TiVo, a maker of digital recording recorders, said the aggregation that was obtained was restricted to e-mail addresses and clients' prototypal names.

The incident comes three eld after hackers penetrated Heartland Payment Systems, a assign and entry bill processor, in one of the large identity-theft cases in U.S. history.

In that case, notorious coder Albert Gonzalez led a ring that stole more than 40 meg commercialism bill numbers, and was after sentenced to 20 eld in prison.

On Friday, JPMorgan Chase & Co, the second-largest U.S. bank, and Kroger Co, the large U.S. supermarket operator, said that whatever customers were unclothed as part of the Epsilon accumulation breach.

Citigroup announced that it had been affected on Sat evening. Spokesman Sean Kevelighan said the slope started revelation its customers of the severance on weekday finished a link on its website.

Some of Epsilon's another clients allow Verizon Communications Inc, Blackstone Group LP's Hilton Hotels, Kraft Foods Inc, and AstraZeneca.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Maria Aspan, editing by Maureen Bavdek, Diane Craft and Gunna Dickson.)

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