New Backoff Malware Could Be Stealing Your Credit Card Information

Peter Davidson, business analyst

More than 1,000 businesses have been affected by the notorious ‘backoff’ malware program. This information was released through a Secret Service announcement on the 31^st of July. The malware has infected many businesses and has invaded several major Point of Sale (PoS) service providers. The Backoff Malware is a type of RAM scraper which will scrub the entire system that it is held within for any traces of credit card data and information. The strength of a RAM scraper program is that it can obtain this piece of critical information from the system memory before it can be stored and encrypted into the system’s database. So the question becomes, how can businesses, credit card vendors, processors and credit card users remain safe?

Antivirus and Malware Protection

It all starts with protection. An unprotected system is just begging to be infiltrated by devious programs looking to steal information and destroy the system. Antivirus programs are the first line of defense against such threats and should be the primary concern of anyone who uses an electronic device, whether it is for personal or business use. The credit card system we used to today is all but obsolete. It has not undergone any major changes to strengthen its security. Criminals can get card readers from places like eBay for next to nothing, and even though the European ‘Chip and Pin’ alternative to magnetic strip based credit cards are far superior, they are still not immune to what these RAM scrapers can do. That is why it is so important for businesses to have a solid antivirus program installed on their systems, such as Immunet. It will help lower the risk of obtaining a disastrous virus or malware program that could potentially ruin the business and the financial lives of their customers.

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