At least five major cash-register providers have been hacked. The breach may impact hundreds of thousands of American businesses, Forbes‘s Thomas Fox-Brewster reports. Here’s what you need to know.
Who: Oracle, Cin7, ECRS, Navy Zebra, PAR Technology, and Uniwell are the companies hit by a Russian cybercrime gang first identified by reporter Brian Krebs earlier this week.
The suspected thieves are the Russian Carbanak gang, one of the world’s most successful cybercrime outfits. After numerous hacks against banks extending back at least to 2015, experts estimate the group has stolen anywhere from several hundred million dollars to as much as $1 billion.
What: Point-of-sale vendors handle credit cards in stores around the U.S. They’re hypervaulable targets for hackers looking for a big pay day.
Hackers targeted the company’s servers and looked for passwords and credit card data, Fox-Brewster reported. It’s not yet clear what was successfully stolen.
When: The first known breach extends back at least to last month when Oracle notified clients, one of whom reached out to a reporter.
Where: As so often happens when major cybercrime strikes, the finger is being pointed toward Russia.
From military to intelligence to cybercrime, Russia is a powerful force in cyberspace.
“The Russian science and math programs are very good,” Chris Finan is a former director of cybersecurity legislation in the Obama administration Chris Finan told the Daily Dot.
“They also have a ton of org criminal groups that are frankly very innovative in their methods. Sometimes the state will outsource their work there.”
