Dexter's Bytes Bite South African Restaurants

In a recent post, “‘Dexter’ Malware Infects South African Restaurants, Costs Banks Millions,” the tech news site ArsTechnica.com is reporting that hundreds of thousands of people have probably been affected by the fraud.
The malware uploaded contents of the POS terminal’s memory, including customers’ payment cards’ Track 1 and Track 2 data, to servers controlled by the criminals.
Dexter gets its name from a text string found in one of its files by researchers at Seculert, an Israeli security firm credited with discovering the variant form of Dexter that was changed to avoid antivirus detection.
Experts believe that the card data was sold in underground forums and exploited to create credit card clones that may be used in physical stores. Card verification value numbers (located on the backs of cards) were not affected by the virus, hence the criminals were prevented from making online purchases.
ArsTechnica reports that researchers are unsure precisely how the Microsoft Windows-based terminals were infected. “Terminals typically aren’t used to browse websites or read e-mail, making it unlikely that drive-by Web exploits or phishing e-mails are the culprits,” they write. “More likely vectors are the administration tools used to remotely update the point-of-sale computers.”
Computer viruses can cross an ocean in milliseconds and stolen data can be sold for millions of dollars. Sintel Systems can be your vigilant ally, helping you create the most secure POS for your franchise and its customers.
If you are interested in learning more about Sintel’s POS systems and how our knowledge and support can impact your future success, call us for a complimentary phone consultation.
Read the full ArsTechica post here.
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