New Credit Card Malware: vSkimmer

Many of you have probably hear about the Dexter Malware from last fall that was designed to capture credit card information as each card was swiped. A new malware program was just discovered by the folks at McAfee and has been named vSkimmer.

vSkimmer appears to be more advanced that Dexter since it gathers general computer information and then uses the internet to capture and send credit card information. vSkimmer is designed to capture date from track 2 on a credit card swipe.

What should you do?

1. Make sure that your anti-virus and anti-malware is set to be updated as updates become available and that you are current on your update subscriptions.
2. Ensure that virus and malware scans are being done on a daily basis.
3. Check all of your firewall settings.
4. Backup your computer information daily and backup to an off-site location or to a removable device like a flash drive.

Credit card malware like Dexter and vSkimmer can also be hindered by using credit card swipes that encrypt the data as the card is swiped. Currently, NCR CounterPoint supports encryption right within the credit card swipe with the correct hardware.

The programmers behind vSkimmer have made threats that 2013 will be a big year for ways to obtain credit card information.

Unsure if your credit card swipe can encrypt data? Contact your point of sale provider as there is an easy way to test this (I'm not posting this online for security reasons).

Are you in the US and in need of no cost retail point of sale advice? I'm happy to help and can be reached on my cell at 208-340-5632 (mountain time) or via email at kevinantosh@gmail.com.