Why Christmas is a hacker's favorite season

[Audrey McNeil <audrey () riskbasedsecurity com>]

http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/blog/cyberbizblog/2013/10/why-christmas-is-a-hackers-favorite.html?page=all

It may only be October and Halloween has yet to come, but people are
already beginning their holiday shopping. Large retailers are already
beginning their layaway programs and some have already begun displaying
Christmas decorations. But some people — and not the kind that retailers
like — have been doing their “shopping” since the beginning of the year.

Jim Jaeger, vice president of cyber security services at General Dynamics
Fidelis Cybersecurity Solutions in San Antonio, Texas, said hackers have
already been prepping for the big holiday push.

He said hackers, who typically are working on 12 projects at a time, tend
to begin the hacking process as early as January or February prior to the
holidays. The goal for most hackers is to be ready or in “production
operation” by at least October.

Production operation means a hacker has complete access to the information
he is seeking. During this time of the year, as Jaeger discussed, retailers
and credit card processors are typically the prime target for hackers.

He told me about two hacks in recent years that his team worked on that
were related to the holiday season. One of which was a breach on
Massachusetts-based TJX Companies (NYSE: TJX) that his team was made aware
of just days before Christmas.

Jaeger said the hacker set up a sniffer to extract unencrypted credit card
information that was coming back to retailers during a transaction. The
hacker managed to get information from about 45,000 credit cards every
three days.

He said that along with breaches of this extent, hackers are using spear
phishing to gain access to companies as well as people’s personal
information. Spear phishing is a virus in the form of link attached in an
email. During the holiday season, he said hackers tend to focus heavily on
spear phishing.

The belief is people are more prone to let their guard down knowing that
they could be expecting a delivery from say UPS. The process would go like
this: A hacker would send an email tailor-made for someone saying a package
is on the way and click said link for more details. When and if the person
clicks, the hacker has access to the information on that computer.

He stressed caution, especially during this season, for people to pay
attention to what’s going on. The big caution is don’t open any email or
click a link in one unless you’re absolutely sure where it came from.

And as for making transactions, try to use cash more often but don’t worry
too much about using your credit card. He said companies have things in
place to reimburse people if their information is hacked and used.

_______________________________________________
Dataloss Mailing List (dataloss () datalossdb org)
Archived at http://seclists.org/dataloss/
Unsubscribe at http://lists.osvdb.org/mailman/listinfo/dataloss
For inquiries regarding use or licensing of data, e-mail
        sales () riskbasedsecurity com 

Supporters:

# OWASP http://www.appsecusa.org
# Builders, Breakers and Defenders
# Time Square, NYC 20-21 Nov
o()xxxx[{::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>

Risk Based Security (http://www.riskbasedsecurity.com/)
Risk Based Security offers security intelligence, risk management services and customized security solutions. The 
YourCISO portal gives decision makers access to tools for evaluating their security posture and prioritizing risk 
mitigation strategies. Cyber Risk Analytics offers actionable threat information and breach analysis.