There is a now a new and innovative way hackers are obtaining credit and debit card information.

Researchers from a well-known website security firm have recently discovered that hackers have started to hide skimmed credit card data in a JPEG file.  This happened on a website that hackers had injected with malicious code.

The compromised website uses an open-source e-commerce platform called Magento 2.

• Using a fake JPEG file enables an attacker to hide and save harvested credit card details for future use without raising any alarm.
• Using a JPEG file enables the hacker to easily access and download the stolen information.

Hackers also used some internal functions of the Magento code framework to penetrate the website and steal data.

• The malicious PHP code utilized the Magento function getPostValue to gather checkout page data within the Customer_ POST parameter.
• In addition, the Magento function called isLoggedIn was used to see user information.

Hackers specializing in skimming attacks know various ways to penetrate a website or network to obtain confidential information.  They often hide their skimming techniques in functionality that looks to be authentic. The use of image files (such as a JPEG) shows the sophistication of these attacks.

To protect your data, make sure you know each and every vulnerability in your network and ensure that you track all invalid login attempts.