UPS corporate has recently issued a press release stating that 51 of its franchise locations from 24 different states were infected by POS malware from January 20, 2014 – August 11, 2014. This malware could have stolen credit/debit card numbers, customer names, addresses, and contact information located on the stores’ point-of-sale registers.
For the official advisory and a list of affected locations, see theupsstore.com.
Many will note that this is not the first data breach headline of 2014 involving a major U.S. retailer. In fact, it is at least the tenth. For insight into why this is happening so much, we suggest Brian Krebs’ latest Q&A, Why So Many Card Breaches? There, Krebs suggests the impending October 2015 U.S. deadline to switch to chip-and-PIN technology set by Visa and MasterCard as one potential motivation and provides a brief introduction to the underground world of “carding.”
For more insight, we also suggest our latest posting on Backoff.
Although unfortunate, this latest breach also acts as an important reminder: big name brands are often malware targets. (No pun intended). In fact, delivery companies in particular are often used in email scams, where fake invoice attachments or links are used as means of infection. For more on this type of attack and tips on how to avoid one, see our 2010 article on Scam Emails.
Have a great (data-breach-free) day!
Related Posts:
- Michaels Arts & Crafts Confirms Data Breach
- LaCie Data Breach – Part of a Larger Malware Trend
- What’s with all the Point of Sale Data Breaches?
- ALERT: You need to change your eBay password, now.
- The SEPA Switch and Internet Fraud
Data Breach Alert: 51 UPS Stores Affected!
A new browser-based rogue security scanner Microsoft has named Rogue:Win32/Defru pretends to find malware on your computer, attempts to sell you fake security products, and prevents you from connecting to over 300 common websites – many of which belong to companies that sell legitimate security products. Those familiar with rogue security products will know that such capabilities have been employed by attackers for years; however, Microsoft reports that Defru is notable due to its simplified, browser-based approach.
Defru modifies the infected PC’s hosts file, which is responsible for website navigation. If the user attempts to navigate to one of more than 300 websites Defru has been designed to recognize, they will instead be redirected to an infamous “PC Defender” rogue site: pcdefender[.]co[.]vu. 
Facebookers beware. Research has confirmed that malware comes in every color, and that an old trick has struck again. It’s called the Facebook color changer, and it is downright malicious.
WordPress Alert: Users running WordPress versions 3.5-3.9 and Drupal versions 6.x-7.x are vulnerable to a newly discovered denial of service attack which can render both website and web server completely inaccessible.
When you think about malware, you probably imagine a nasty little file that’s been installed on your computer. When you think about anti-malware, you probably imagine some sort of program that can remove that nasty file, and help you go about your day, malware-free. Malware doesn’t always need files though. And anti-malware can’t always do its job through file detection alone.
Flash drives: we share them with friends knowing full well that if they come back with some mysterious .exe the last thing we should do is open it. Easy enough to remember and easy enough to avoid. But what if the malware is hidden? What if there’s no trace of malware, or .exe, at all?