{"id":6287,"date":"2014-08-25T12:17:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T16:17:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=6287"},"modified":"2014-08-25T12:17:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T16:17:46","slug":"us-warns-significant-number-of-major-businesses-hit-by-backoff-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/08\/25\/us-warns-significant-number-of-major-businesses-hit-by-backoff-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"US warns ‘significant number’ of major businesses hit by Backoff malware"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Over a thousand major enterprise networks and small and medium businesses in the U.S. have been compromised by a recently discovered malware package called \u201cBackoff\u201d and are probably unaware of it, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a cybersecurity alert on Friday.<\/p>\n

Backoff first appeared in October 2013 and is capable of scraping the memory contents of point of sales systems\u2014industry speak for cash registers and other terminals used at store checkouts\u2014for data swiped from credit cards, from monitoring the keyboard and logging keystrokes, from communicating with a remote server.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past year, the Secret Service has responded to network intrusions at numerous businesses throughout the United States that have been impacted by the \u201cBackoff\u201d malware,\u201d the alert said. \u201cSeven PoS system providers\/vendors have confirmed that they have had multiple clients affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

The malware is thought to be responsible for the recent data breaches at Target, SuperValu supermarkets and UPS stores, and the Secret Service is still learning of new infections.<\/p>\n

DHS first warned of Backoff in late July, when it noted the malware was not detectable my most antivirus software. That made it particularly difficult to stop, because much of the fight against computer viruses and malware rests on antivirus applications.<\/p>\n

Most antivirus packages now detect Backoff, but DHS is advising network operators take immediate action to ensure they haven\u2019t been affected.<\/p>\n

\u201cDHS strongly recommends actively contacting your IT team, antivirus vendor, managed service provider, and\/or point of sale system vendor to assess whether your assets may be vulnerable and\/or compromised,\u201d it said. \u201cThe Secret Service is active in contacting impacted businesses, as they are identified, and continues to work with and support those businesses that have been impacted by this PoS malware.\u201d<\/p>\n

In many cases, hackers gained access to machines through brute-force attacks on remote log-in systems offered through companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google and other third-party vendors. Once inside, they were able to copy the malware to the machine and set it capturing credit card data.<\/p>\n

The DHS asked that instances of it are reported to a local Secret Service field office.<\/p>\n

The Target data breach was one of the largest in recent memory, resulting in tens of millions of credit and debit cards being compromised. In the last couple of weeks, SuperValu said that at least 180 of its stores had been hit by a data breach and earlier this week UPS said 51 of it UPS Store locations had been hit.<\/p>\n

via US warns ‘significant number’ of major businesses hit by Backoff malware | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over a thousand major enterprise networks and small and medium businesses in the U.S. have been compromised by a recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9,10],"tags":[342,655,1177],"class_list":["post-6287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","category-software","category-technology","tag-exploits","tag-malware","tag-vulnerabilities"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-1Dp","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6142,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/08\/06\/department-of-homeland-security-warns-retailers-of-backoff-pos-malware-techspot\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":0},"title":"Department of Homeland Security warns retailers of ‘Backoff’ POS malware – TechSpot","author":"NCCT","date":"August 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The Department of Homeland Security yesterday issued an alert about a point-of-sale malware that was used in a string of recent attacks by cyber criminals. Dubbed Backoff, the malware has been witnessed on at least three separate forensic investigations since late 2013 and continues to operate today. According to US-CERT,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6960,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/11\/25\/stealthy-sophisticated-regin-malware-has-been-infecting-computers-since-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":1},"title":"Stealthy, sophisticated ‘Regin’ malware has been infecting computers since 2008","author":"NCCT","date":"November 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Symantec researchers have identified a particularly sophisticated piece of malware, called \u201cRegin\u201d that was likely developed by a nation state and has been used to spy on governments, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers and individuals since at least 2008. \u201cRegin displays a degree of technical competence rarely seen,\u201d Symantec said in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8210,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/05\/05\/this-terrifying-malware-destroys-your-pc-if-detected\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":2},"title":"This terrifying malware destroys your PC if detected","author":"NCCT","date":"May 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A new type of malware resorts to crippling a computer if it is detected during security checks, a particularly catastrophic blow to its victims. The malware, nicknamed Rombertik by Cisco Systems, is designed to intercept any plain text entered into a browser window. It is being spread through spam and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6341,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/09\/02\/why-hackers-may-be-stealing-your-credit-card-numbers-for-years\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":3},"title":"Why hackers may be stealing your credit card numbers for years","author":"NCCT","date":"September 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"While conducting a penetration test of a major Canadian retailer, Rob VandenBrink bought something from the store. He later found his own credit card number buried in its systems, a major worry. The retailer, which has hundreds of stores across Canada, otherwise had rock-solid security and was compliant with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5750,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/11\/one-click-test-finds-gameover-zeus-infections-on-pcs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":4},"title":"One-click test finds Gameover Zeus infections on PCs","author":"NCCT","date":"June 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Users can test by simply visiting a Web page if their computers have been infected with Gameover Zeus, a sophisticated online banking Trojan that law enforcement officers temporarily disrupted last week. The one-click test was developed by security researchers from antivirus vendor F-Secure and takes advantage of the malware\u2019s aggressive\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7570,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/02\/05\/malicious-advertisements-on-major-sites-compromised-many-many-pcs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6287,"position":5},"title":"Malicious advertisements on major sites compromised many, many PCs","author":"NCCT","date":"February 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Attackers who have slipped malicious advertisements onto major websites over the last month have potentially compromised large numbers of computers. Several security vendors have documented attacks involving malicious advertisements, which automatically redirect victims to other websites or pages that silently attack their computer and install malware. \u201cWe certainly see malvertising\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}