What is Skimming in Cyber Security?

Skimming in cyber security is a tactic used by criminals to steal payment details and personal information from a payment card holder. Fraudsters can use many ways to obtain card information illegally. Recently, with the most advanced approaches, e-skimming is another way to collect card information in real-time remotely.

Type of Skimming in Cyber Security 

Handheld POS Skimming

As the skimming devices are small and can be easily concealed, hand-held POS SKIMMING is a common criminal trend. An insider, such as a waiter or store staff, uses a skimming device to copy credit card details. With just an easy credit card swipe, the victim’s information can be downloaded with the skimming device.

POS SWAPS:

Fraudsters replace a secure POS device with one-hose protection features that have been compromised. Cybercriminals typically steal devices from certain retailers and manipulate them by infecting them with malware or inserting small skimming devices into the device’s software. The scammers then wait for the skimming device to copy and collect card data from all customer transactions. Then, they need to wait for a suitable time and come back to replace the skimming devices and steal the copied card data.

Self-service skimming:

 Criminals execute self-service skimming attacks on ATMs, gasoline pumps and other similar terminals. Criminals carry out self-service skimming attacks against self-service terminals such as ATMs, gas stations, and other similar terminals. Cyber ​​attackers usually pretend to be technicians to access service terminals easily and install skimming devices.

E-Skimming 

Much research has shown that e-skimming involves a new skimming threat in cybersecurity. Compared to typical skimming schemes, e-skimming is the attackers who create skimming codes on e-commerce pages to capture credit card and personally identifiable information and send the stolen data to domains under their control.

How to Stop Skimming in Cyber Security 

There are several ways to prevent skimming attacks. Contacting the services of a professional security and maintenance provider might be a good idea. Swiftcomm can make sure you can step back and focus on your duties. In addition, following the below tips can help you and your organisation to prevent skimming in cyber security

• Patching operating systems and software with the latest security updates regularly
• Implementing tighter security in every access point
• Multi-factor authentication is a must
• Monitor and analyse web logs

A best practice to prevent web skimming attacks against your website is to regularly keep your software and operating system up to date with the latest security updates. Swiftcomm can help your organisation to implement anti-malware protection and keep up to date with the latest security patches for all tools and software.