point of sale – Cyber Law Watch

Complex ModPOS Malware Infects Point-of-Sale Terminals in Lead up to Christmas Spend Frenzy

Nov 30 2015

While the festive season approaches and retailers prepare for their busiest time of the year, a sophisticated form of point-of-sale malware, known as ‘ModPOS’, has reared its ugly head and is targeting payment terminals in the U.S.

It is estimated that the first ModPOS data hacks occurred in 2013 and that millions of credit and debit cards used at a broad variety of U.S. retailers have since been compromised. The unique complexity of the code, which experts say has never been seen before in malware, made it tricky to decipher.

Cyber security experts have warned that ModPOS has the ability to not only “scrape” credit and debit card numbers from the memory of point-of-sale terminals, but that the multifaceted code also records keystrokes of computer operators and transmits stolen data. If that isn’t enough, the malware is particularly difficult to detect and is reportedly capable of infiltrating despite security software and data controls.

More details about ModPOS malware can be found here.

Hotel Industry Payment Systems Under Attack

Nov 26 2015

By Cameron Abbott and Meg Aitken

Stayed at one of Hilton Worldwide Holdings’ (Hilton) hotels between 18 November – 5 December 2014 or 21 April – 27 July 2015? Check your bank statement.

Within the same week, both the Hilton and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. (Starwood) have discovered the point-of-sale terminals at a number of hotels across the globe have been infected with malware.

The malicious malware has enabled hackers to pinch the credit and debit card information of Starwood and Hilton customers, however there is apparently no evidence that personal contact information provided as part of the hotels’ guest-reservation system or loyalty rewards program was stolen.

While the attack on Starwood was confined to 54 of its hotels in North America, the Hilton attack affected the chain’s hotels globally, including Australian establishments. The number of cards compromised has not been revealed by either hotel.

Starwood and Hilton hotels are not the only luxury hotel chains to be affected by data hacks in 2015. The Mandarin Oriental and Trump International have also reported data security breaches involving intrusive malware this year. In the case of Starwood the hack occurred over eight months without detection showing how sophisticated some of these attacks are.

Starwood’s media release can be found here. Hilton’s media release can be accessed here.

Reports and Surveys Update

May 25 2015

by Jim Bulling and Julia Baldi

Tred Micro Q1 2015 Report
Trend Micro Q1 2015 Report finds Australia is the target of increasing ransomware attacks, with Australian holding 6% of the world’s ransomware detections. Australia also ranked second in the world for countries with the highest number of Point of Sale RAM Scraper infections (malware which sources card details) with 10% of the world’s infections, after the United States with 23%.

See a summary of the report here, and the full report here.

Blue Coat Systems Inc
Blue Coat Systems, Inc., released result of a global research study of 1,580 respondents across 11 countries. Results from the survey found that universally, workers visit inappropriate websites while at work despite typically being fully aware of the risks to their companies.

See the media release here.

Tag:point of sale