Formjacking is a new invisible threat in cyberspace today.
The term “Formjacking” is a combination of “online/website form” and
“hijacking”. This term brings about the digital version of the well-known
skimming by cybercriminals.
Like it sounds, this kind of threat involves a
cybercriminal taking over forms on websites by exploiting their security
weaknesses. Cybercriminals use lines of malicious JavaScript code on the
checkout page forms of ecommerce websites to steal client payment information
such as credit card numbers, usernames and passwords, social security numbers
among other important/private data. The major aim of formjacking is to reap the
maximum amount valuable data as possible that website clients submit via ecommerce
forms.
How
Does This Occur?
There are many formjacking vectors that cybercriminals will
use to launch attacks to get access to any information that they want, as noted
below;
Fraudsters prepare card slots at ATMs with their own card
reader. The pin code is spied out simultaneously with small cameras. The credit
card are often duplicated with the collected data.
The user’s payment card data can be trapped when they use
the card on an e-commerce payment page that has been injected with a JavaScript
code. When the user clicks “submit,” the malicious JavaScript code collects the
entered information. This code is injected on ecommerce sites by cyber threat
actors with an aim to gather information like payment card details, home and
business addresses, phone numbers and more. Once the information has been
collected, it is then transferred to the attacker’s servers, that is then used
for financial gain.
Another menace may happen when the criminals use this data
for identity theft or payment card fraud.
Summit’s 2018 project frontline that brings about
Cyberspace Security Report, shows that 92% of credential gathering and data
exfiltration was achieved from different websites and online forums.
Notable Examples of Formjacking Attacks that have been
successful include British Airways and Ticketmaster attacks that were believed
to be perpetrated by Mage cart. The British Airways attack resulted in more
than 380,000 credit cards being stolen at an estimated loss of $17 million.
This is in addition to the record £183 million fine that was levied against the
company due to its lack of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
compliance. GDPR allows fines of up to 4% of a company’s annual turnover for
noncompliance.
Who’s
Behind the Attacks?
Formjacking belongs to man-in-the-middle attacks, during
which attackers position themselves unnoticed between the communication
partners using malware. But who are the unknowns? Known to move since 2015, “Mage
cart” refers to a minimum of seven different hacking groups and has become a
household name in recent years as these groups were responsible for the
well-known cyberattacks on large companies including British Airways, Ticketmaster,
and Newegg.
Mage cart attack methods involve browser-based injection of
malicious JavaScript code, often well-disguised as a Google tag or other common
website analytics code snippet. This malicious code “skims” form entry fields
for payment card data, names, addresses, and even personal information or
protected health information (PHI)–depending on what sort of website is
attacked.
Mage cart attackers are best known for hacking into Magneto
handcart pages, but they're not limited to only payment card data. Formjacking
has been discovered on all types of pages and sites: healthcare sites, login
pages, etc.
How
Can You Protect Yourself?
Online users may fail to detect and prevent formjacking
during online shopping because the infected pages look unchanged. It is
therefore advisable to restrict purchases to large shops which, in contrast to
small e-commerce websites, are equipped with more extensive security systems.
Use the best software that gives you total
security from all the threats and cyber-crimes that can happen on the big
sites.
Credit cards should even have a second level of defence
within the sort of 3D Secure in MasterCard systems. For example, no transaction
is possible without a Transaction authentication number (TAN) code sent to
user’s smartphone.
The responsibility for protecting user’s data against
e-skimming attacks lies back to the companies. It is imperative that the
company keeps their security systems up to date. This is to specialize in
keeping entry gates for malware into the system, closed with extensive
protective measures.
Running vulnerability scanning and penetration testing to
identify loopholes or weaknesses in your cyber security defences.
Monitoring outbound traffic on your site to be aware of any
traffic from your site to another location.
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