Tag Archives: Target data breach

Immediate Vault Immediate Access

Guarding Against PoSeidon and Other Point-of-Sale Breaches

Posted on by

According to Cisco’s Security Solutions team, there is a new malware family targeting point-of-sale (PoS) systems, infecting machines to scrape memory for credit card information and send the payment card data to servers for harvesting and, likely, resale. This malware, which the group has nicknamed PoSeidon, works like this:

Unlike other PoS memory scrapers that store captured payment card data locally until attackers log in to download it, PCWorld reported, PoSeidon communicates directly with external servers and can update itself automatically, and also has defenses against reverse engineering.

PoS malware using the “memory scraping” technique also caused the Home Depot and Target data breaches. In the latter, hackers were able to save names, credit card numbers, expiration dates, security codes from the backs of cards and encrypted PINs when at least 40 million customers swiped at in-store registers.

“The new PoSeidon malware has retailers on alert, particularly as the frequency and relative ease with which POS system breaches are occurring is forcing them to take a closer look at their IT infrastructure and reassess how secure it actually is,” said Andrew Avanessian, EVP of consultancy and technology services at security firm Avecto. “It is also prompting many to ask, what will it take to get ahead of these attacks?”

Avanessian believes the answer is clear: a more defense-in-depth approach to security. “While perimeter technologies like firewalls can prevent against certain types of external attack, it cannot block malware that has already found its way onto endpoints within an organization,” he explained.

buy abilify online metabolicleader.com/p7pmm/img/jpg/abilify.html no prescription pharmacy

“With a multi-layered security strategy that incorporates solutions like patching, application whitelisting and privilege management, organizations can more effectively protect against the spread of malware, defending their valuable assets and ultimately their reputation.”

As I wrote in the March 2014 issue of Risk Management, the adoption of EMV chip technology presents one of the most promising ways to increase PoS security. Already common in Europe, EMV technology—named for its founders, Eurocard, MasterCard and Visa—utilizes embedded chips that, unlike magnetic strips, make it nearly impossible to counterfeit cards. In Europe, 81% of cards have EMV chips, and countries that have adopted the technology saw sharp declines in credit card fraud. Meanwhile, the United States accounts for 27% of worldwide credit transactions, but sees 47% of card fraud.

As organizations roll-out chip and pin technology across the country, these breaches may start to decline, Avanessian agrees, but he urges a more holistic approach to fighting PoSeidon and other PoS malware. “EMV (or chip-and-pin) will absolutely help stop card fraud, however, retailers should not become complacent and think this is the silver bullet they have been waiting for,” he said. “Yes it will help stop fraud once the details have been stolen, but it does not stop businesses from being breached. Companies gather a huge amount of data about their patrons, such as names and addresses, and this data is still valuable to fraudsters.

buy lexapro online metabolicleader.com/p7pmm/img/jpg/lexapro.html no prescription pharmacy

Unless retails take a multi-layer defense-in-depth approach to security, they will still get breached.”

To prevent consumers from losing and shopping elsewhere, Avanessian believes it is critical to evolve the means of combatting cyberattack just as the means of hacking has changed. “In our experience, retailers are still relying on antiquated ‘detection’-based technologies to keep the bad guys out. They all spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on detection, yet they still get breached,” he said.

buy arimidex online metabolicleader.com/p7pmm/img/jpg/arimidex.html no prescription pharmacy

“The world has changed, the players have changed, cyberattacks are now a trillion dollar industry—the approach has to change.”

Insider Threats Missing from Most Cybersecurity Plans

Posted on by

When it comes to damaging cyberattacks, a horror movie cliche may offer a valuable warning: the call is coming from inside the building.

buy cipro online thecifhw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/cipro.html no prescription pharmacy

According to PwC’s 2014 U.S. State of Cybercrime Survey, almost a third of respondents said insider crimes are more costly or damaging than those committed by external adversaries, yet overall, only 49% have implemented a plan to deal with internal threats. Development of a formal insider risk-management strategy seems overdue, as 28% of survey respondents detected insider incidents in the past year.

buy proscar online thecifhw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/proscar.html no prescription pharmacy

In the recent report “Managing Insider Threats,” PwC found the most common motives and impacts of insider cybercrimes are:

Insider Cybercrime Consequences

These threats can come from a variety of sources, from employees to trusted business partners who are given extensive access. Even after the costly lesson from the Target breach about the risk of contractors with system access, only 44% of respondents in PwC’s survey have a process for evaluating third parties before engaging in business operations with them, and just 31% include security provisions in contract negotiations.

To fortify against the risk, the firm recommends that organizations use a phased approach to build an insider threat management program over time.

buy rifadin online thecifhw.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/jpg/rifadin.html no prescription pharmacy

This should be formed with an eye to compliance with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) framework, which highlights the key functions: Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond, and Recover. To explain how and when to tackle these, the report explains:

building an insider threat program

Home Depot Confirms Massive Data Breach

Posted on by

Home Depot Data Breach

On Monday, Home Depot confirmed that a breach of its payment data systems may have exposed customer card data across the United States and Canada. The breach appears to have begun in April, allowing hackers to steal an untold amount of shopper information including credit card numbers.

online pharmacy ocuflox with best prices today in the USA

The home improvement giant disclosed on Sept. 2 that it was investigating reports of “unusual activity” and, a week later, determined that any customers who used a card in the U.S. or Canada is at risk, though the breach does not appear to impact shoppers online or at retail stores in Mexico. In an official statement, the company assured that no one would be held responsible for fraudulent charges and offered free identity protection services, including credit monitoring, to anyone who has shopped at one of its locations since April.

As with the massive Target data breach, the Home Depot news was first broken by cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs. The data went up for sale on rescator. So, the same underground store that sold credit card information from the Target and P.

online pharmacy zoloft with best prices today in the USA

F. Chang’s breaches, and may have been stolen by the same group of hackers. Krebs reported, “In what can only be interpreted as intended retribution for U.S. and European sanctions against Russia for its aggressive actions in Ukraine, this crime shop has named its newest batch of cards ‘American Sanctions.’ Stolen cards issued by European banks that were used in compromised U.S. store locations are being sold under a new batch of cards labeled ‘European Sanctions.'”

Given the five-month duration, this breach may be many times larger than the Target attack, which exposed 40 million credit and debit cards and the personal data of 70 million customers in three weeks. The Target breach led to the resignation of its CEO and cost the company almost $150 million in the second quarter alone, according to the New York Times. In fact, the toll may reach ever higher. “I don’t see how they’re getting out of this for under a billion, over time,” John Kindervag, the vice president and principal analyst with Forrester Research, told the Times, adding, “$150 million in a quarter seems almost like a bargain.” Beyond the company itself, Javelin Strategy and Research reported at the time that total damage to banks and retailers could surpass billion, and consumers could be liable for more than billion in uncovered losses and other costs.

online pharmacy clomid with best prices today in the USA

One of the most promising ways to increase point-of-sale security is through the adaptation of EMV chip technology, as discussed in the March issue of Risk Management. In Europe, 81% of cards have EMV chips, and countries that have adopted the technology saw sharp declines in credit card fraud. In England, for example, the amount of fraud per transaction has dropped 57% since 2002, while it has risen almost 70% in the United States over the same period, according to consulting firm Celent. As part of its breach response, Home Depot announced plans to escalate adoption of EMV, installing “chip and PIN” checkout terminals throughout its U.S. stores by the end of the year. Target made a similar move in April, saying that it will issue its branded REDcard credit, debit and co-branded credit cards with MasterCard chip technology beginning next year.

Insuring Against Third-Party Cyberrisk

Posted on by

The tremendous growth in cyber insurance is being fueled in part by the desire of companies to cede some of the risk of a cyber breach to insurers.

  In many cases insurers are eager to take on this risk—provided they can objectively quantify and understand the risks they are underwriting.

However, is it enough to only look at the cyber risk of the insured?  Increasingly companies are being attacked through their third-party vendor networks; one study by the Ponemon Institute reported 23% of data breaches are attributable to third party vendors. As companies share critical customer information with vendors, they expose themselves to a breach through these extended networks. Criminals have even started to target small to medium sized companies as a way to access the sensitive information of the larger firms they serve.

One case of this new tactic is documented in a recent New York Times article in which a mischievous attack was perpetrated by inserting malware into a Chinese take-out menu favored by employees of the targeted company. Last December, when Target Corp was breached and hackers stole credit card data for 70 million customers, the attack was traced to malicious code getting into Target’s network through a heating and air conditioning vendor.

For an insurer, these risks are very real and pose a potential blind spot in the risk assessment process.  When a breach occurs through a third-party vendor and involves the loss of sensitive data on behalf of a customer, the financial and reputational damage that ensues falls primarily on the owner of the data—and their insurer. While insurers today are grappling with the task of evaluating the cyber risk of the insured themselves, often there is little thought given to the cyber security of the insured’s third-party vendors.

Some underwriters are asking prospective clients to list their critical vendors in policy applications, but this is primarily to identify areas of risk aggregation—where a large percentage of insureds are all relying on the same set of vendors.

 Identifying risk aggregation is an important part of overall risk assessment, however simply enumerating critical vendors and identifying potential aggregation issues fails to identify whether those vendors are secure.

In order for underwriters to overcome this obstacle, objective cyber risk metrics can be used to both assess the insured AND their critical vendors. Ratings can be a valuable tool in identifying problem areas within an insured party’s internal network and extended ecosystem. Identifying and mitigating these problems before a breach occurs can help both client and insurer avoid costly monetary losses and damage to their reputation.