On June 27, 2016 Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas released a statement on its website about a recent breach they experienced. They are yet another example of a malware attack on payment card systems. The information captured by the card-scraping malware included cardholder name, card number, expiration date and internal verification code. Customers may have been impacted if their payment cards were used between October 27, 2015 and March 21, 2016 at Hard restaurants and retail outlets in Las Vegas, NV.
POS Malware attacks are common occurrence and as we know with almost all breaches, it takes a while to be detected. I came across a great article by Symantec about Point of Sale Malware where they also mentioned a whitepaper on the same subject. They write “the most common attack route against POS systems is through the corporate network. Once an attacker gains access to the corporate network, for example through a vulnerable public-facing server or spear-phishing email, the attacker could traverse the network until they gain access to an entry point to the POS network. This entry point is often the same as a corporate administrator would utilize to maintain the POS systems.”
Malware collects very valuable card information that can then be sold on the dark net depending on the information. Track 2 data can be sold for up to $100 because it’s the actual information stored on the magnetic strip. This is ultra-lucrative because it allows for cards to be cloned. I’m sure many of you have been contacted by your respective card companies to be told that your card has been swiped in another country or state (this should explain it).