Malware

Backoff infections spike 33 percent at Q4 start, more variants surface

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Backoff, point-of-sale malware that infected the systems of Dairy Queen and other retailers, has consistently expanded its infection path in recent months.

According to Damballa, which observed a peak in Backoff infections in Q3, detections of the malware have increased an additional 33 percent at the start of this quarter.

“Last month, in our quarterly State of Infections report, we noted a steady rise through August and September in Backoff…Closing out October, we saw an additional increase in this malware,” a Friday Damballa blog post said.

The report on increased infections comes soon after Fortinet detailed a new Backoff variant, dubbed “ROM,” which disguises itself as a media player file during installation. On Thursday, Fortinet also shed light on another variant, “211G1,” which is “very similar to ROM” in its functionality, a blog post by researcher Hong Kei Chan said.

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