Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

HEADLINES

Pandemic, post-pandemic measures will continue to alter threat landscape

The retail and hospitality industry with its predominant “brick-and-mortar” focus pre-pandemic, bore the brunt of moving portions of their workforce to remote work – complicating their attack surfaces and creating opportunities for attackers.

Image by Megan Rexazin from Pixabay.com

IntSights, the threat intelligence company focused on enabling enterprises to Defend Forward, released a research report on their findings of the cyber threat impact of COVID-19 on the retail and hospitality industry. The retail and hospitality industry with its predominant “brick-and-mortar” focus pre-pandemic, bore the brunt of moving portions of their workforce to remote work – complicating their attack surfaces and creating opportunities for attackers.

The report uncovers how the pandemic and post-pandemic measures will continue to alter the industry threat landscape, especially as vaccine distribution and contact tracing efforts expand to wider segments of the population.

Retail, hospitality, and travel businesses increasingly hold protected health information (PHI) and personally identifiable information (PII) records as more and more of these businesses now require proof of COVID-19 testing or vaccination from customers or employees. IntSights discovered that underground black market sale prices of containing PHI and PII with key data points for identity theft are notably higher than those of even compromised credit cards, putting the industry at a larger risk of cyberattacks as the information it holds becomes increasingly attractive and lucrative to criminals.

The report also highlights the surge in demand for fake COVID-19 testing and vaccination documents resulting in attacks against retailers with pharmacy components – and a black market for fake test results has been thriving online. Some criminal vendors claim that they can abuse access to legitimate infrastructure that outputs testing documentation to generate otherwise authentic documents without actually conducting tests.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Other key findings include:

  • Growth in the sale of unauthorized access to enterprise networks on underground criminal forums that enable other criminals to deploy ransomware on the networks, for instance, and access are mostly priced at four figures in USD
  • Expansion of ecommerce attacks and card-not-present (CNP) fraud as more consumers increase reliance on ecommerce and home deliveries
    • Up for sale on underground criminal forums are Python scripts to bypass one-time passwords (OTPs) which provide an extra layer of protection for CNP transactions

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Like Us On Facebook

You May Also Like

ELECTRONICS

Philips EasyKey partnered with Megaworld and equipped their world-class properties with only the best-in-class smart locks we have on offer, the Philips EasyKey 9300.

HEADLINES

The PLDT wireless unit is also calling on customers to report these messages to Smart’s HULISCAM portal for further action.

HEADLINES

Here are some tips from Sophos for staying secure online during the cybersecurity awareness month.

HEADLINES

While only 21% of hackers believed that AI technologies enhance the value of hacking in 2023, 71% reported it to have value in 2024....

HEADLINES

Kaspersky has enhanced its Kaspersky Industrial CyberSecurity (KICS), a native XDR Platform for industrial enterprises, and streamlined Managed Detection and Response (MDR) for Industrial...

HEADLINES

Smart has received reports about unscrupulous individuals pretending to be company executives or representatives of organizations asking for donations for made-up or nonexistent relief...

HEADLINES

Located in the Kaspersky office, the new facility will provide the company’s stakeholders with services ranging from an overview of Kaspersky’s practices, to a...

HEADLINES

Smart and Maya emphasize that they never send SMS with links requesting login credentials, personal information, or account verification. If you receive such a...

Advertisement