The Holidays Are Nearly Here
Managed IT services providers in Atlanta are already thinking about IT security services for the holiday season because that is when cyber vulnerabilities multiply. Though it’s just the beginning of May, the holiday season has extended its tendrils back into October, and that’s only about five months away. If you want to ensure your devices are secure for the sake of operations, client-retention, and asset retention, you want to start looking into security measures now rather than later. To that end, you’ll want to protect your POS devices against an increasingly nasty malware scourge that goes by the name of FlokiBot.
What’s The Big Deal?
FlokiBot isn’t just a simple program — it’s actually a platform from which varying hacking suites can be developed. As soon as a developer, retailer, or other service provider becomes savvy to one level of security compromise, hackers can return to FlokiBot and generate another break-in solution.
FlokiBot primarily targets devices known as “dumb.” That is to say: they’re conventionally not understood to be at risk. Point of Sale (POS) terminals are under this category. These are now becoming increasingly vulnerable to credit card malware because of platforms like FlokiBot, which is essentially a banking Trojan utilizing attacks on retail and food service companies to bankroll hackers. The smart FlokiBot users will only steal small amounts — 10 cents here, 25 cents there. Few customers will notice, few retailers will notice, but when there are a thousand people that filter through, say, a Wal-Mart during Christmas, that’s $250 — should the malware have infected all POS terminals. Should such software get distributed across a network, a single shopping day could fund a hacker for the rest of the year.
Specifically, FlokiBot does these things:
- POS memory scraping
- Malicious DDOS (Distributed Denial Of Service) attacks utilizing POS terminals
- TOR-based Command and Control (.onion sites)
Managed IT services in Atlanta can help prevent FlokiBot based malware from scraping sales terminals for credit card information used by the “actor” — technical terminology for a hacker. They can also help prevent DDOS attacks which network POS terminals together in order that services can be suspended against a ransom of some kind. Basically, instead of stealing from customers at the store, the hackers will make it impossible for cash registers to use plastic solutions, and say something akin to: “Listen up, generic retailer X: you pay me X-amount (probably $10k or higher), or I’ll just keep your registers locked up as long as I can.” Naturally, when a store is pulling down $30,000 or $40,000 a day, they have to pay that charge. Finally, FlokiBot utilizes .onion URLs to shroud activity so that it essentially goes undetected until the hacker makes his move.
Solutions
You’ve got to have protections facilitated by professionals who understand the issue, what to look for, and how to curtail it — that means managed IT services providers in Atlanta that understand exactly how FlokiBot works and can proactively protect against it. When it comes to such solutions, MIS Solutions, Inc. offers cost-effective, comprehensive security suites designed to ensure no FlokiBot shenanigans impacts your operations either during high-volume traffic seasons, or throughout the rest of the year. Contact us for solutions against this malware scourge that are reliable.