By Beth McGarrity
Here on SecurityCents, we are often blogging about attacks on restaurants, retail or lodging where the attacker has one main purpose: stealing payment information for monetary gain. But as we’ve seen during recent months, the attackers’ motive is shifting and evolving.
Just ask Sony…
Or Mastercard and Visa…
Each of these organizations have been faced with a different sort of attack during the year where groups like Anonymous and Lulz Security have attacked servers to bring down the site and embarrass the organization for lack of security controls.
It may be different than the stories we’ve told in the past, but the moral of the story is the same. And these new threats shouldn’t detract from what we already know.
The focus on stealing payment data has not been lost. A few months back, Citigroup disclosed that over 210,000 accounts in North America alone were breached and information was stolen. It was one of the most significant attacks on a financial institution.
So while the rise of hactivism is currently in the spotlight, don’t forget that cyber criminals who are seeking monetary gain continue to lurk in the shadows, slowly and consistently tapping into networks and determining the vulnerabilities that exist and can be exploited. It is critical that merchants continue to stand guard and ensure that they have the security controls in place to protect customer payment data.
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