14 DAY TRIAL // Following the data breaches suffered by Target, Neiman Marcus and other yet to be named US retailers, the FBI warns that more such cyberattacks should be expected.
In a three-page report sent out to US retailers, the FBI warns that “POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms' actions to mitigate it.”
According to Reuters, the report warns companies about “memory-parsing” malware that’s specially designed to infect point-of-sale (POS) systems.
The fact that such malicious software is readily available, combined with the large profit that can be made with it, has attracted the attention of a wide range of actors.
One of the pieces of malware referenced in the FBI alert is dubbed “Alina.” This threat includes a feature that enables cybercriminals to upgrade it remotely, making it more difficult for IT security teams to spot.
In the past year, the FBI detected around 20 data breaches that involved such malware.