Backoff is a kind of malware that targets point of sale (POS) systems. [1] [2] It is used to steal credit card data from point of sale machines at retail stores. [3] Cybercriminals use Backoff to gather data from credit cards. It is installed via remote desktop type applications where POS systems are configured. [4] It belongs to the POS malware family as it is known to scrape the memory of POS devices. [5] [6]
Backoff malware injects the malicious stub into the explorer.exe file to gain access to the POS machines and it scrapes the victim's machine memory from running the processes. [7] It searches this memory for leftover credit card data after a payment card has been swiped. [8] Cybercriminals have mutated different variants of Backoff while some of the variants are equipped with keylogging functionality. [9] Some of the Backoff variants have C2 component which helps the malware to upload the victim's personal data, download the malware onto the victim POS machine and to uninstall the malware. [10]
Backoff Malware was aggressive and about 16.2% been infected in the third quarter of 2014. The survey by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) states that thousands of businesses have been infected by Backoff POS Malware. [11]
Network security company Damballa records a 57 percent infection increase from Backoff malware during August 2014. [12] Big companies like Home Depot, Target and Dairy Queen suffered from Backoff infection and many more smaller companies may be infected.
A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its connection. The owner can control the botnet using command and control (C&C) software. The word "botnet" is a portmanteau of the words "robot" and "network". The term is usually used with a negative or malicious connotation.
Ransomware is a type of malware from cryptovirology that threatens to publish the victim's personal data or permanently block access to it unless a ransom is paid off. While some simple ransomware may lock the system without damaging any files, more advanced malware uses a technique called cryptoviral extortion. It encrypts the victim's files, making them inaccessible, and demands a ransom payment to decrypt them. In a properly implemented cryptoviral extortion attack, recovering the files without the decryption key is an intractable problem – and difficult to trace digital currencies such as paysafecard or Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are used for the ransoms, making tracing and prosecuting the perpetrators difficult.
A supply chain attack is a cyber-attack that seeks to damage an organization by targeting less secure elements in the supply chain. A supply chain attack can occur in any industry, from the financial sector, oil industry, to a government sector. A supply chain attack can happen in software or hardware. Cybercriminals typically tamper with the manufacturing or distribution of a product by installing malware or hardware-based spying components. Symantec's 2019 Internet Security Threat Report states that supply chain attacks increased by 78 percent in 2018.
Zeus, ZeuS, or Zbot is a Trojan horse malware package that runs on versions of Microsoft Windows. While it can be used to carry out many malicious and criminal tasks, it is often used to steal banking information by man-in-the-browser keystroke logging and form grabbing. It is also used to install the CryptoLocker ransomware. Zeus is spread mainly through drive-by downloads and phishing schemes. First identified in July 2007 when it was used to steal information from the United States Department of Transportation, it became more widespread in March 2009. In June 2009 security company Prevx discovered that Zeus had compromised over 74,000 FTP accounts on websites of such companies as the Bank of America, NASA, Monster.com, ABC, Oracle, Play.com, Cisco, Amazon, and BusinessWeek. Similarly to Koobface, Zeus has also been used to trick victims of technical support scams into giving the scam artists money through pop-up messages that claim the user has a virus, when in reality they might have no viruses at all. The scammers may use programs such as Command prompt or Event viewer to make the user believe that their computer is infected.
Alureon is a trojan and rootkit created to steal data by intercepting a system's network traffic and searching for banking usernames and passwords, credit card data, PayPal information, social security numbers, and other sensitive user data. Following a series of customer complaints, Microsoft determined that Alureon caused a wave of BSoDs on some 32-bit Microsoft Windows systems. The update, MS10-015, triggered these crashes by breaking assumptions made by the malware author(s).
Sality is the classification for a family of malicious software (malware), which infects Microsoft Windows systems files. Sality was first discovered in 2003 and has advanced to become a dynamic, enduring and full-featured form of malicious code. Systems infected with Sality may communicate over a peer-to-peer (P2P) network to form a botnet to relay spam, proxying of communications, exfiltrating sensitive data, compromising web servers and/or coordinating distributed computing tasks to process intensive tasks. Since 2010, certain variants of Sality have also incorporated rootkit functions as part of an ongoing evolution of the malware family. Because of its continued development and capabilities, Sality is considered one of the most complex and formidable forms of malware to date.
Dexter is a computer virus or point of sale malware which infects computers running Microsoft Windows and was discovered by IT security firm Seculert, in December 2012. It infects PoS systems worldwide and steals sensitive information such as credit and debit card information.
Seculert is a cloud-based cyber security technology company based in Israel. The company's technology is designed to detect breaches and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs), attacking networks. Seculert's business is based on malware research and the ability to uncover malware that has gone undetected by other traditional measures.
I Love Velvet is a global provider of hardware and software for mobile point of sale (mPOS) transactions and value-added retail services. I Love Velvet manufactures and sells merchant-operated, consumer-facing and self-service mPOS systems to the entertainment, retail, hospitality, and automotive industries.
GameOver ZeuS (GOZ), also known as peer-to-peer (P2P) ZeuS, ZeuS3, and GoZeus, is a Trojan horse developed by Russian cybercriminal Evgeniy Bogachev. Created in 2011 as a successor to Jabber Zeus, another project of Bogachev's, the malware is notorious for its usage in bank fraud resulting in damages of approximately $100 million and being the main vehicle through which the CryptoLocker ransomware attack was conducted, resulting in millions of dollars of losses. At the peak of its activity in 2012 and 2013, between 500,000 and 1 million computers were infected with GameOver ZeuS.
Memory-scraping malware or RAM Scrapping malware is a malware that scans the memory of digital devices, notably point-of-sale (POS) systems, to collect sensitive personal information, such as credit card numbers and personal identification numbers (PIN) for the purpose of exploitation.
Point-of-sale malware is usually a type of malicious software (malware) that is used by cybercriminals to target point of sale (POS) and payment terminals with the intent to obtain credit card and debit card information, a card's track 1 or track 2 data and even the CVV code, by various man-in-the-middle attacks, that is the interception of the processing at the retail checkout point of sale system. The simplest, or most evasive, approach is RAM-scraping, accessing the system's memory and exporting the copied information via a remote access trojan (RAT) as this minimizes any software or hardware tampering, potentially leaving no footprints. POS attacks may also include the use of various bits of hardware: dongles, trojan card readers, (wireless) data transmitters and receivers. Being at the gateway of transactions, POS malware enables hackers to process and steal thousands, even millions, of transaction payment data, depending upon the target, the number of devices affected, and how long the attack goes undetected. This is done before or outside of the card information being (usually) encrypted and sent to the payment processor for authorization.
BlackPOS, also known as Kaptoxa, is a point-of-sale malware program designed to be installed in a point of sale (POS) system to scrape data from debit and credit cards. BlackPOS was used in the Target Corporation data breach of 2013.
Alina is a Point of Sale Malware or POS RAM Scraper that is used by cybercriminals to scrape credit card and debit card information from the point of sale system. It first started to scrape information in late 2012. It resembles JackPOS Malware.
FastPOS is a variant of POS malware discovered by Trend Micro researchers. The new POS malware foregrounds on how speed the credit card data is stolen and sent back to the hackers.
PunkeyPOS is a new type of Point of Sale Malware which was discovered by PandaLabs in 2016. This new Point of Sale Malware infects the Point of Sale(POS) Systems with two types of malware applications - keylogger and RAM Scraper. PunkeyPOS gets installed into the computer automatically without the knowledge of the user, in a similar manner as other POS malware.
A new sophisticated point-of-sale or memory-scraping malware called "Multigrain" was discovered on April 17, 2016 by the FireEye Inc. security company. Multigrain malware comes under the family of NewposThings Malware. This malware is similar to the NewposThings, FrameworkPOS and BernhardPOS malware which were known previously as notorious malware.
CenterPOS is a point of sale (POS) malware discovered Cyber Security Experts. It was discovered in September 2015 along with other kinds of POS malware, such as NewPOSThings, BlackPOS, and Alina. There are two versions which have been released by the developer responsible: version 1.7 and version 2.0. CenterPOS 2.0 has similar functionality to CenterPOS version 1.7. The 2.0 variant of CenterPOS malware added some more effective features, such as the addition of a configuration file for storing information in its command and control server.
Malumpos is a point of sale malware that are designed to steal or scrape customer’s credit and debit card detail from point of sale system. These are designed in a way that it records point of sale’s data which is running in an Oracle MICROS payment system of the restaurant. The collected data has been used in 333,000 customer sites around the world. Malumpos Malware targets hotels and other US businesses and put the retail customers at risk. This POS RAM Scraper is written in the Delphi programming language. Malumpos monitors, processes, scrapes the stolen data of the infected POS system and the RAM. First it stores the stolen credit or debit card details of the customer from the infected point of sale system once it is swiped. Then it sends the data to the cybercriminal to empty the customer bank balance or the details are sold to the black market.
Kasidet POS Malware is a variant of Point of Sale (POS) Malware that performs DDoS attacks using Namecoin's Dot-Bit service to scrape payment card details. It is also known as Trojan.MWZLesson or Neutrino and was found in September 2015 by cyber security experts. It is a combination of BackDoor.Neutrino.50 and the POS malware.