Whenever we look for something around us, it is common to find technologies that facilitate daily tasks, automating them. An example of this are financial activities, such as bank transfers carried out in a few clicks or with just the approximation of a card. However, security is an important issue to consider as cyberattacks are more frequent than ever.
Recently, a new method of stealing cards through a virus has drawn attention for its stealth and high degree of danger, which reinforces the importance of security measures in transactions financial.
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Getting to Know MageCart
In the year 2022, just considering transactions with credit and debit cards, Brazil recorded almost 34 billion transactions. Of this total, 18.2 billion were by credit card, while 15.4 billion by debit card.
This high number draws a lot of attention not only because of the exorbitant amount, but because the safety of users of these services is threatened.
With this great movement, criminals cybernetics are not limited to creating ways to access users' personal data to commit fraud. Of all the ones we've seen, the new method, known as MageCart, seems to be the most dangerous.
It consists of introducing a virus into the system responsible for integrating customer data with financial institutions in order to authorize purchases, known as a payment gateway.
If the gateway is infected, the user completing an online purchase ends up providing their data to criminals without having the slightest idea of what is happening.
The method differs from other cyber attacks that consist of sending lines of code directly to websites, products and the like, and that is precisely what makes it very dangerous.
How does the virus get past security systems?
Usually, sites that work with e-commerce have a security system that detects every movement made on it. If something suspicious happens, the attack can be neutralized by the system itself.
However, MageCart manages to circumvent these systems by encrypting the stolen data in order to send it to criminals.
In this process, the virus creates automatic passwords that are difficult to crack and camouflages its activities. mixing with legal accesses, which makes the action of the security system difficult, being practically undetectable.
With this, the data of the victims arrives in the hand of the criminals, being at their total disposal.
protective measures
In order for websites to protect their data, and especially customer data, it is essential to reinforce security.
The main way to do this is by emphasizing two-step verification at the time of checkout, so that only the customer can confirm that he is the one buying.
In addition, it is important that sites recommend that their users use stronger passwords, such as For example, a password must contain special characters, numbers and variations between uppercase and lowercase letters. lowercase.
