Recently, Israel’s National Cyber System identified attempts at a ransomware attack against the country’s merchants.
Ransomware attacks are carried out by hackers and prevent access to a system, information or other area. The hacker demands a payment of money in ransom before agreeing to restore the system to its owners who have been locked out.
Sometimes, the hackers also threaten to reveal publicly sensitive or secret information taken during the attack, unless a ransom is paid.
Iran was proved to have been behind similar such attacks in recent years, but these hacks appear to be only financial in nature.
This latest attack was carried out against firms that provide software services for merchants’ cash registers, and which gathers consumers’ credit card information.
In this case, the hackers sent a false but authentic-looking system message from the management interface (screen connect) to the cash register screen, which when clicked, runs the malware that locks the access and prevents the ability to operate the cash register.
The software vendors for the stores reportedly acted responsibly and warned their customers not to click on the system message and thus managed to stop some of the damage.
National Cyber recommends that customers who use these products and companies that provide service in the field, reset their passwords, refrain from clicking on suspicious messages and links and make sure that there are required protections with an emphasis on two-step authentication and secure connection.
