Europol Found 443 Online Stores Infected With Card Stealers

Europol and ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity), national law enforcement from 17 countries, and private sector allies have uncovered a massive digital skimming campaign affecting 443 online merchants.

Digital skimming, a form of cyberattack, involves stealing credit card information from customers during the online checkout process. This stealthy and insidious method allows cybercriminals to intercept sensitive payment data without triggering any alerts to either the customers or the online retailers.

Europol’s two-month-long operation against digital skimming, spearheaded by Greece under the EMPACT (European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats) priority, combined the expertise of national Computer Security Incident Response Teams (CSIRT) with the knowledge of private sector partners such as Group-IB and Sansec. Together, they brought to light a concerning number of online merchants who were unwittingly compromised and revealing their customer’s card details to cybercriminals.

These digital skimming attacks often remain undetected for extended periods, enabling the criminals to sell the stolen data on darknet marketplaces or use them for themselves to make unauthorized transactions. It’s usually very difficult for customers to pinpoint when their financial data was compromised.

Europol’s role in this operation extended beyond mere detection. As a crucial participant, Europol took on the responsibility of informing the affected e-commerce platforms, thus helping them to understand their unwitting involvement in these security breaches. Their efforts, combined with those of law enforcement and CSIRT, provided essential technical support to these compromised platforms, aiming to rectify vulnerabilities and safeguard future transactions.

This operation's success led to the identification of 23 distinct families of JavaScript skimmers, such as ATMZOW, health_check, FirstKiss, and others, all of which incorporate advanced techniques to avoid detection. These digital skimmers often mimic legitimate website components, making them harder to identify during routine website inspections.

The timing of this operation is also particularly significant as it coincides with the peak of the holiday shopping season, a period traditionally marked by a surge in online shopping activities. This surge amplifies the risks associated with digital payment methods, underlining the importance of heightened vigilance both by consumers and online merchants.

In response to this threat, Europol has released a multilingual awareness guide on digital skimming, providing valuable insights and recommendations to help online merchants and their customers stay secure.