Hackers target over 1,000 retailers in the US

Computer hackers might have stolen the data of millions and millions of shoppers as attacks on retail stores in the US become more common, said the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, reported.

The department said in an advisory that over 1,000 businesses in the US had been victimised by hacker malware, which targets the systems on cash registers and steals the personal and financial information of customers following the swiping of their debit or credit cards.

The DHS specifically warned retailers of the malware called Backoff, discovered in October and the most recent computer system infected were 51 UPS stores across the country.

That breach compromised the data on over 105,000 transactions by customers at UPS stores from January of this year through August.

According to the company no customers were affected by fraud from the infection of malware, but it feared the hackers might have stolen names of shoppers, payment information and email addresses.

Due to the hack, the company was offering free identity protection to its customers that made a transaction in one of its 51 stores affected by the malware.

In a cyber attack, Supervalu the US grocery chain was also victimised in a cyber attack.

Two hundred of its grocery and liquor stores were hit this summer, with a malware infection from 22 June 22 to 17 July.

Through July, Backoff had been undetectable by software for viruses, which was how it was able to steal information for long periods from companies.

According to a security analyst, Backoff was not that different from other forms of malware, except that it was designed to target computer systems of high value establishments.

Meanwhile, www.pcmag.com citing its earlier report, beginning of the month, said the National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) had teamed up with the US Secret Service and other third-party partners to issue a warning about the new "Backoff" malware. The malware was typically installed on retail point-of-sale systems by clever exploitation of their remote access capabilities (or those of other systems on their network).

Though that did not sound so bad, the omission from the published advisory made for chilling reading: "At the time of discovery and analysis, the malware variants had low to zero percent anti-virus detection rates, which means that fully updated anti-virus engines on fully patched computers could not identify the malware as malicious."

Further, from a new advisory published by the same organisations, it appeared that Backoff has been rather successful at infiltrating a number of point-of-sale systems.

"Over the past year, the Secret Service has responded to network intrusions at numerous businesses throughout the United States that have been impacted by the 'Backoff' malware. Seven PoS system providers/vendors have confirmed that they have had multiple clients affected. Reporting continues on additional compromised locations, involving private sector entities of all sizes, and the Secret Service currently estimates that over 1,000 U.S. businesses are affected," a new advisory from the NCCIC reads.