Card payments were already recurring before the pandemic, and thanks to it they skyrocketed all over the world. Millions of people opened a bank account for the first time in 2020 and acquired different services from said financial institutions.
Despite the fact that paying with plastic seems like a fast, safe and efficient way to make purchases, you always have to be alert. On this occasion, Kaspersky —global cybersecurity company—, warns of a dangerous malware that directly affects terminals and therefore consumers. We tell you how it works.
According to the digital privacy expert company, the virus was developed by Prilexa group of cybercriminals responsible for one of the largest attacks on ATMs in Brazil in 2016, where more than 28,000 credit cards were cloned and more than 1,000 ATMs were emptied.
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This virus directly affects payments contact less (no contact). Despite the fact that they were created to be the safest when paying by card, now you have to be careful. Recent Kaspersky research reveals that this is the world’s first malware capable of blocking these types of transactions.
Contactless transactions have become an opportunity to strengthen the financial inclusion of businesses and users, thanks to the fact that they offer a comfortable and secure way to make payments without the need to physically touch, insert or swipe cards or smart devices (key rings, watches, among others)”, says the company.
How does this virus work?
Contactless payment systems include radio frequency identification (RFID). Recently, Samsung Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Fitbit Pay and mobile banking applications have implemented near field communication (NFC) technologies, which allow instant data transmission between devices that are centimeters apart.
In this sense, the malware is installed in bank terminals, detects contactless payments and blocks them. Subsequently, the terminal screen will show the message “Approach error. Insert card”. Not knowing it is a virus, the customer inserts the plastic and the malware captures their data.
This represents a significant risk for businesses and consumers in the region. In Mexico alone, in the third quarter of 2022, more than 230 million credit card operations were carried out at point-of-sale terminals with a value of more than 200 billion pesos, according to data from the Bank of Mexico.
How to protect yourself from the virus?
If you are a customer, it is more than recommended to pay in cash. With this you not only avoid this malware, but other operational scam tactics that may exist. But if you only carry your card, then try to pay with ApplePay or more up-to-date and independent terminals, such as clip either iZettlefor example.
In case you have an establishment, Kaspersky recommends:
- Protect older systems with an updated solution. The solutions must be optimized to work with all their functions in the previous versions of Windows, as well as in the newer ones of this operating system. This assures the company that they will have full support for previous versions for the foreseeable future and gives them the opportunity to upgrade to a new version when necessary.
- Install a security solution, such as Kaspersky Embedded Systems Security, which protects devices against different attack vectors. Even if the device’s system had extremely low specifications, Kaspersky’s solution would protect it with a Default Deny scenario.
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