Forest Global Training Partners

Cyber Risks · Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks

Understanding and Preventing Point of Sale Attacks

Summary: Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 describes three infiltration routes for point-of-sale devices, ordered from least to most sophisticated: opportunistic botnet and exploit-kit infections, Internet-exposed remote administration services often left with default credentials, and attacks on trusted third parties such as HVAC contractors and PoS integrators. The article notes that a major PoS vendor shipped a default username and password across all its products for roughly 25 years, and that the Backoff malware family, spread through compromised integrators, hit over one thousand US-based companies in 2014.

Why it matters: The Target breach began with an intrusion at an HVAC contractor, and the integrators who install and maintain PoS machines are now targeted directly - meaning the trust your vendors hold is itself an attack path into your cardholder data.

Read the original at Unit 42 Palo Alto Networks ↗

Topics
Malware
Related