Tag: hackers

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Home Depot says malware affected 56M payment cards

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Home Depot says malware affected 56M payment cards

SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 4:50 PM    LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2014, 6:09 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK  — Home Depot said that 56 million payment cards were estimated to have been breached in a data theft between April and September at its stores in the U.S. and Canada. That makes it the second-largest breach for a retailer on record.

The nation’s largest home improvement retailer, based in Atlanta, also confirmed Thursday that the malware used in the data breach has been eliminated. The retailer said there was no evidence that debit PIN numbers were compromised or that the breach affected stores in Mexico or customers who shopped online at Homedepot.com. It said it has also completed a “major” payment security project that provides enhanced encryption of customers’ payment data in the company’s U.S. stores.

The disclosure puts the data breach behind TJX Cos.’s theft of 90 million records, disclosed in 2007 and ahead of Target’s pre-Christmas 2013 breach which compromised 40 million credit and debit cards.

Home Depot confirmed its sales-growth estimates for the fiscal year and said it expects to earn $4.54 per share in fiscal 2014, up 2 cents from its prior guidance. The company’s fiscal 2014 outlook includes estimates for the cost to investigate the data breach, providing credit monitoring services to its customers, increasing call center staffing and paying legal and professional services.

– See more at: https://www.northjersey.com/news/home-depot-says-malware-affected-56m-payment-cards-1.1091344#sthash.hhDBCSU5.dpuf

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Hackers may have stolen credit data from Home Depot

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Hackers may have stolen credit data from Home Depot
Javier E. David | @TeflonGeek

Home Depot may be the latest retailer to have suffered a massive credit card breach, the company confirmed on Tuesday, after a website reported that a large cache of stolen data had appeared on black market sites.

According to information first reported by Krebs on Security, the breach may have extended as far back as the spring of this year. If so, the fallout may end up being far larger than Target’s incident late last year, when information pertaining to tens of millions of customers was compromised.

Home Depot is working with investigators to determine the origin of “unusual activity,” a spokeswoman told CNBC in a statement

https://www.cnbc.com/id/101964168

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First contagious WiFi computer virus goes airborne, spreads like the common cold

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First contagious WiFi computer virus goes airborne, spreads like the common cold

Computer science researchers have demonstrated for the first time how a digital virus can go airborne and spread via WiFi networks in populated areas at the same pace as a human diseases.

The “Chameleon” virus, designed by a University of Liverpool team, showed a remarkable amount of intelligence by avoiding detection and breaking into personal and business WiFi networks at their weakest points — spreading at an alarming rate.

Network Security Professor Alan Marshall said the virus doesn’t try to damage or disrupt established networks — instead, the virus slips in unnoticed to collect the data and log-in information of all users connected to the network via WiFi, and seeks other WiFi networks through them — a much more subtle, sinister and dangerous objective.

“WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus,” Marshall said in a ScienceBlog report. “It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack WiFi networks — but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly.”

The secret to Chameleon is the method by which it avoids detection. Traditional computer antivirus programs look for viruses present on computers and the Internet itself. Chameleon sticks strictly to WiFi networks, bypassing secured, more heavily encrypted networks to enter and spread through weaker ones — especially free public access points like those found in cafes, on trains and in airports.

Read more: https://dailycaller.com/2014/02/25/first-contagious-wifi-computer-virus-goes-airborne-spreads-like-the-common-cold/#ixzz2uQHqGcIp

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Security Expert Claims To Gain Info On 70-K ObamaCare Records in 4 Minutes

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Security Expert Claims To Gain Info On 70-K ObamaCare Records in 4 Minutes
January 21, 2014 – 3:08 PM
By Eric Scheiner

A cyber security expert claims he could gain access to 70,000 personal records of ObamaCare enrollees in about 4 minutes.

David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec, told Fox News Sunday the information can be obtained without even hacking.

– See more at: https://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/eric-scheiner/security-expert-claims-gain-info-70-k-obamacare-records-4-minutes#sthash.FtBH5sp6.ENaWc8OH.dpuf