Some Oracles systems were breached by Russian hackers.
According to Krebs on Security, Oracle Corp. has confirmed that some of its systems have been breached, allegedly by a well-known group of Russian criminal hackers called the Carbanak Gang. Includes a customer portal supporting merchants using Oracle's Micros point-of-sale payment system, which may help to explain the recent rash of Retail payment breaches.
Krebs on Security asked Oracle for comment regarding the alleged data breach, and the company acknowledged that it had “detected and addressed malicious code in certain legacy MICROS systems.” As a result of this discovery, Oracle is requesting that all MICROS customers reset their passwords for the MICROS online support portal.
While the size and scope of the breach is still undetermined, sources close to the investigation say that initially Oracle thought the breach was limited to “a small number of computers and servers at the company’s retail division.” It now appears that the breach affected more than 700 infected systems.
In its analysis of the breach, Krebs on Security asserted, “This breach could be little more than a nasty malware outbreak at Oracle. However, the Carbanak Gang’s apparent involvement makes it unlikely the attackers somehow failed to grasp the enormity of access and power that control over the MICROS support portal would grant them.”
Gartner analyst Avivah Litan asserted that the attack could well be linked to recent POS hacks and incidents of stolen payment card data affecting retailers, restaurants and other merchant locations, explaining: “This [incident] could explain a lot about the source of some of these retail and merchant point-of-sale hacks that nobody has been able to definitively tie to any one point-of-sale services provider.”
Litan told Fortune, “I think it’s very likely” that this breach could be behind the recent rash of stolen payment card data across retail and hotel locations. “If they’re MICROS customers, this would 100% explain that,” she said on a call.
“I’d say there’s a big chance that the hackers in this case found a way to get remote access” to on-premises point-of-sale devices of MICROS customers, Litan told Krebs on Security.
Oracle acquired the Micros technology two years ago for $5.3 billion and the POS terminals are used at about 330,000 locations in 180 countries, putting them among the three most widely used POS systems in the world. According to a 2014 Oracle power point presentation, MICROS is used by 330,000 sites across 180 countries, and is one of the three largest providers of point of sale tech worldwide, alongside Verifone and Ingenico.
