Security researchers at McAfee Labs have identified 200 new malware threats every minute during 2013, with a marked upswing in point-of-sale (POS) attack vectors in the final quarter.
McAfee Labs fourth quarter threats report highlights the role of the "dark web" malware industry as a key enabler of the high-profile POS attacks and data breaches in the fourth quarter of 2013.
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US retail chains including Neiman Marcus experienced such data breaches, with the POS attack on Target ranking among the largest data-loss incidents of all time (current estimates range up to 110m transaction records).
McAfee researchers say thieves on underground crime forums are offering for sale credit card numbers reported stolen from Target in batches of between 1m and 4m at a time.
The report indicates that the POS malware used in these attacks were far from "advanced" and likely to have been purchased "off the shelf" from the cybercrime-as-a-service community, customised specifically for these attacks.
Vincent Weafer, senior vice president for McAfee Labs, says: "For security practitioners, the ‘off the shelf’ genesis of some of these crime campaigns, the scale of operations, and the ease of digitally monetising stolen customer data all represent a coming of age for both Cybercrime-as-a-service and the ‘dark web’ overall."
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By GlobalDataThe report concludes that the POS data breaches will have long-lasting repercussions, with changes likely to be made to security approaches and compliance mandates in response to the growing cybercrime industry.
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