The malware went after the company's point-of-sale systems to steal credit card data More than 130 restaurants at the Cicis pizza chain were the recent target of hackers, and customers’ credit card data may have been stolen.The company reported the data breach on Tuesday and posted a list of the restaurants affected, most of which are located in Texas.The hackers struck by secretly installing malware into the restaurant’s point-of-sale systems. Other companies, including fast-food chain Wendy’s and retailer Target, have been attacked in the same way in order to steal payment card data.In Cicis’ case, the hackers started targeting the restaurants as early as 2015. But most of the intrusions began this March, when the company began noticing problems with the point-of-sale system, it said in a statement. The pizza chain has eliminated the malware, it said. But in many instances, the infections remained at the restaurants for three months before they were contained. Some compromises lasted for close to a year.Hackers have been striking point-of-sale systems because they represent “the weakest link” in the security chain for retailers, said George Rice, a payment security expert with Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. “Because checkout terminals are in constant use and usually patched less frequently, they are more vulnerable to malware that steals cardholder data,” he said in an email.Hackers are gaining access to the point of sale systems usually by stealing the login credentials or guessing the passwords to the remote web interfaces that can control them. The hackers can then easily distribute the malware to hundreds, and even thousands, of checkout machines.To prevent the breaches, retailers should upgrade their systems, Rice said. This can involve using encryption or tokenization to secure any customer data that might end up stolen.Cicis has already alerted payment card companies about the breach. The company is warning customers to be on alert for fraudulent credit card charges. Related content news analysis P2Pinfect Redis worm targets IoT with version for MIPS devices New versions of the worm include some novel approaches to infecting routers and internet-of-things devices, according to a report by Cado Security. By Lucian Constantin Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Botnets Botnets Botnets news Hackers book profit by scamming Booking.com customers Malicious elements are using Vidar infostealer to gain access to Booking.com’s management portal and defraud customers. By Gagandeep Kaur Dec 04, 2023 4 mins Cyberattacks Cybercrime Security opinion Proactive, not reactive: the path to ensuring operational resilience in cybersecurity The experience of the financial sector in dealing with threats is instructive to anyone in the cybersecurity space — there’s no substitute for getting out ahead of potential risks and problems. By Cameron Dicker Dec 04, 2023 6 mins Financial Services Industry Financial Services Industry Financial Services Industry feature 4 budget-savvy strategies for building an effective purple team Building a purple team is not only for organizations with a generous budget. From the shoestring one-person operation harnessing open-source power to the well-oiled machine of a comprehensive team, organizations of all sizes have a pathway to heighte By Maril Vernon Dec 04, 2023 14 mins Threat and Vulnerability Management IT Training Risk Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe