SAN FRANCISCO – The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has reportedly sent a three-page report to retail companies warned to expect more cyber attacks after discovering about 20 hacking incidents in the past year involving similar malware used in the massive Target data breach, USA Today reports.

USA Today continues that Reuters obtained the confidential, three-page report, “Recent Cyber Intrusion Events Directed Toward Retail Firms,” noting that it describes the risks posed by "memory-parsing" malware that infects point-of-sale (POS) systems. "We believe POS malware crime will continue to grow over the near term, despite law enforcement and security firms' actions to mitigate it," said the FBI report.

"The accessibility of the malware on underground forums, the affordability of the software and the huge potential profits to be made from retail POS systems in the United States make this type of financially motivated cyber crime attractive to a wide range of actors," the FBI added.

Gray Taylor, executive director of PCATS, the industry's standards and technology organization, commented to NACS Daily: “It is assured that without material changes in the card payments system, these types of attacks will continue — possibly escalate. Unfortunately I see the card payment industry holding out hope that EMV will serve a speedy end solution to our 40-year-old system issues, but the reality is that EMV is years away and an incredible cost burden to society. We are working to obtain more immediate solutions in the field, such as PIN, encryption and tokenization.”

Taylor continued that the industry's  key threat vector is through our dispensers.  

PCATS and NACS have developed a number of resources for convenience retailers to use in order to materially reduce this threat.