Space hackers are taking advantage of the present state to attack vulnerabilities. The risk involves payment processors, national and international health organizations.
As the pandemic pushes more companies to allow work from home, the risks are getting higher for hackers to take advantage of the situation. Cyber attackers work double-time to get their hands on every open avenue that they could penetrate.
Payment processors security lapse
One of the space hackers’ high-risk targets is payment processors. Due to the highly confidential matters processed, tighter online security is implemented.
However, the recently reported case gave space hackers an open opportunity to access certain payment processor accounts. Paay, a card processor based in New York reported a security lapse. The company’s startup left one of their databases without a password.
The said database contained a list of credit card numbers displayed in full text. There is still no update if there were hackers who managed to access the files or were able to save them for later use.
The company immediately took the Paay database offline after a security researcher and a news outlet called their attention. However, Paay denied of having credit card numbers on the affected database.
Paay is the third company to report a security lapse this year. On January, Cornerstone, a Christian payment processor left an unprotected database. The said portal contained customers’ payment record since 2013.
Earlier this April, nCourt, a payment processor for local government’s court fine collection and utility bill payments exposed a cache of its data on its website. nCourt which runs courtpay.org and utilitypay.org across Arkansan and Oklahoma.
Authorities on both payment processor immediately attended to the security breach. The companies also patched up their online security measures to avoid the incidents from happening again.
Health organizations target for space hacking
Hackers are taking advantage of the frontline departments amid the pandemic. Google detected a spoofing domain targeting the World Health Organization login page.
The domain targets health organizations, public health agencies, and individuals working in the same field. This is similar to the previously reported hacking that targeted other international health organizations.
Security experts corrective measure
Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG), a specialized team of security experts said that they are monitoring the reported space hacking incidents. The company assured that they are adding extra security protections.
Google TAG added that they increased the threshold for Google sign in. The team also stated that they made the account recovery tighter for the 50,000 Google accounts currently at risk of hacking.
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