US supermarket chain Hannaford Bros has splashed out “millions of dollars” on additional security measures following the discovery, last month that hackers may scooped as many as 4.2 million credit and debit card numbers.

Based in Scarborough, Maine, the company, with stores in Massachusetts and other states, has started encrypting card numbers from the moment they are swiped at checkout counters and, “has tapped IBM to monitor security for its computer network around the clock,” says the Boston Globe.

But it probably isn’t alone, says Hannaford CIO Bill Homa.

Other retailers are probably still vulnerable and, “The bad guys are one step ahead,” the story has him saying.

The company, “told Massachusetts authorities it found unauthorized computer programs, called malware, on servers in more than 270 stores,” it states, adding:

When customers swiped their credit cards, the malware intercepted the data as it was transmitted from cash register to credit card processors.

The malware stored the data – card numbers and expiration dates – on store computers and later sent the information to offshore computers, where it could presumably be picked up by the thieves.

“It’s an ever-escalating issue,”David Hogan, CIO for the National Retail Federation, told the Boston Globe.

“It’s like building a wall around your credit card data. Your professional hacker just builds a taller ladder.”

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Source: http://news.antispyware.com/?p=239