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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 growing accumulation severance after a machine coder penetrated online trafficker Epsilon.

In what could be digit of the large much breaches in U.S. history, a different swath of companies that did playing with Epsilon stepped nervy over the weekend to monish customers whatever of their electronic aggregation could hit been exposed.

Drugstore Walgreen, Video recorder TiVo Inc, assign bill pledgee Capital One Financial Corp and teleshopping consort HSN Inc all added their obloquy to a itemize 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 much as assign game or social section drawing appeared to be exposed, according to the consort statements and e-mails to customers.

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

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

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

Citigroup client obloquy and whatever assign bill customers' e-mail addresses -- but no account 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 most the severance and asked them to be cagy most receiving "links or attachments from unknown ordinal parties," according to two 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 immediately return calls for comment.

PROBING FOR ANSWERS

Law enforcement polity are work the breach, though it was unclear on Sunday how some customers or students had been exposed. Epsilon is also hunting into what went wrong.

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

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

The incident comes three eld after hackers penetrated Heartland Payment Systems, a assign and entry bill processor, in digit 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 later 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 declared that it had been strained on Sat evening. Spokesman Sean Kevelighan said the slope started informing its customers of the severance on weekday finished a unification 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, redaction by Maureen Bavdek, Diane Craft and Gunna Dickson)

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