Trojan sneaks into hotel, slurps guests' credit card data

Cyberooks are selling malware through underground forums which they claim offers the ability to steal credit card information from a hotel point of sale (POS) applications.

The ruse, detected by transaction security firm Trusteer, shows how criminals are using malware on enterprise machines to collect financial information in addition to targeting consumer PCs with banking Trojans and other nasties.

The hospitality industry attack involves using a remote access Trojan program to infect hotel front desk computers. The malware includes spyware components that steal credit card and other customer information by capturing screenshots from the PoS application. The malware is capable of stealing credit card numbers and expiration dates, but not CVV2 numbers in the sample Trusteer inspected.

The attack code is being offered for $280 in Visa underground forums. According to Trusteer, the price tag includes a guide configuring the malware and tips on how to trick front-desk managers into installing it.

The security biz added that at the time of publishing its blog on Wednesday, the malware had not yet been detected by any anti-virus application. More details on the malware – including a screenshot from the underground forum where it was offered for sale – can be found here.

Last week Trusteer warned about a ZeuS-based Trojan that targeted cloud-based payroll service providers. The transactions security firm reckon the hospitality industry malware it found on an underground forum is part of the same trend, involving the diversification of Trojan-based attacks away from traditional targets such as consumers and small business bank customers.

“Criminals are increasingly expanding the focus of their attacks from online banking targets to enterprises,” said Trusteer’s CTO Amit Klein. “One of the reasons for this shift is that enterprise devices can yield high value digital assets when compromised. In addition, the prevalence of bring your own device (BYOD) usage by employees makes it easier to infect unmanaged smartphones, tablets and laptops that are used to access sensitive enterprise systems and applications.” ®