E-Business
Kaspersky Reports Upsurge in PoS, DDOS Attacks
Over 77% of companies globally have suffered from some kind of attack during the past 12 months, says Kaspersky.
This is according to the Kaspersky Lab IT Security Economics Report, which notes that over the past year there has been an upsurge (up to 16%) in both distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks, and attacks targeting in point-of-sale (POS) systems.
An increase in attacks where DDOS and POS systems were the main vectors are making the situation even worse – especially during the Christmas sale season, when there are more shoppers in store than usual and the boost in sales is making retailer revenues an attractive target for cyber criminals, it adds.
Kaspersky says 2017 has seen a series of high-profile cyber security breaches reported in the payment systems of major brands – from Chipotle to Hyatt Hotels and recently, Forever 21. to the latest Kaspersky DDOS Intelligence Report noted a considerable increase and geographic spread in botnet DDOS attacks in the third quarter of 2017, with targets in 98 countries – compared to 82 in the second quarter.
A major effect of POS hacks is the possibility of identity theft, says Trend Micro. Personal and sensitive information stolen from credit and debit cards can be used to impersonate unsuspecting consumers. These victims may soon encounter problems such as fraudulent purchases, financial loss, and damaged credit standing, notes Trend Micro.
This situation is going to be extremely relevant to retail and e-commerce organisations during the intense period of sales around Christmas, says Kaspersky. As shoppers look to bag their bargains, retailers can expect increased revenues, it adds.
This in turn makes retailers a lucrative prize if cyber criminals can stage successful DDOS attacks against them for a ransom, using POS systems as an entry point for targeted attacks or stealing customer credentials and money, says Kaspersky.
“Given this year’s apparent increase in these types of attacks, we recommend businesses – retailers in particular – to stay alert during the Christmas season, when there are more risks of cyber criminals cashing-out through the exploitation of payment systems or attacks that use DDOS,” says Alessio Aceti, head of enterprise business division for Kaspersky Lab.
“These can involve cyber criminals demanding a ransom, or simply preventing an organisation from trading, making them lose income and clients as a result. This is also a good opportunity for businesses to develop their cyber security culture and invest in the right technologies.”
Transcorp Hotels Plc has delivered a stellar performance in the first half of 2025, recording a 60% year-on-year surge in revenue to ₦47.57 billion, up from ₦29.72 billion in H1 2024. Gross profit climbed 71% to ₦36.21 billion, maintaining a strong 76% margin despite inflation and operational headwinds.
The hospitality giant, a subsidiary of Transnational Corporation Plc, also announced an interim dividend payout of ₦1.024 billion — offering ₦0.10 per 50 kobo ordinary share to shareholders.
In a bold move, the company unveiled Nigeria’s largest corporate venue — the 5,000-seat Transcorp Centre — staking its claim as the new leader in event hospitality. Chairman Emmanuel Nnorom described the results as proof of Transcorp Hotels’ transformative strategies and unwavering investor commitment. MD/CEO Uzo Oshogwe attributed the success to relentless execution and a resilient business model.
Transcorp Hotels, renowned for iconic assets like Transcorp Hilton Abuja and its digital platform Aura, says it isn’t just leading Nigeria’s hospitality sector — it’s redefining excellence across Africa.
Chinese “threat actors” have hacked Microsoft’s SharePoint document software servers and targeted the data of the businesses using it, the firm has said.
China state-backed Linen Typhoon and Violet Typhoon as well as China-based Storm-2603 were said to have “exploited vulnerabilities” in on-premises SharePoint servers, the kind used by firms, but not in its cloud-based service.
The US tech giant has released security updates in response and has advised all on-premises SharePoint server customers to install them.
“Investigations into other actors also using these exploits are still ongoing,” Microsoft said in a statement.
The firm said it had “high confidence” the hackers would continue to target systems which have not installed its security updates.
It added that it would update its website blog with more information as its investigation continues.
Microsoft said it had observed attacks in which hackers had sent a request to a SharePoint server “enabling the theft of the key material by threat actors”.
Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer at Mandiant Consulting firm, a division of Google Cloud, told reporter, it was “aware of several victims in several different sectors across a number of global geographies”.
Carmakal said it appeared that governments and businesses that use SharePoint on their sites were the primary target.
A number of adversaries who stole material encoded by cryptography were then able to regain ongoing access to the victims’ SharePoint data, he said.
“This was exploited in a very broad way, very opportunistically before a patch was made available. That’s why this is significant,” Carmakal said.
Carmakal said the “China-nexus actor” was deploying techniques similar to previous campaigns associated with Beijing.
Microsoft said Linen Typhoon had “focused on stealing intellectual property, primarily targeting organizations related to government, defence, strategic planning, and human rights” for 13 years.
It added that Violet Typhoon had been “dedicated to espionage”, primarily targeting former government and military staff, non-governmental organizations, think tanks, higher education, the media, the financial sector and the health sector in the US, Europe, and East Asia.
Meanwhile, Storm-2603 was “assessed with medium confidence to be a China-based threat actor”.
National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has issued a public warning that it is not associated with NINcard.com.
According to the commission, the website has been circulating online to offer services for Nigerians seeking National Identification Number (NIN) services.
NIMC, in a post on its official X account on Wednesday, said, “NINcard.com is not in anyway affiliated to NIMC. Stay vigilant!”
The warning was accompanied by screenshots of fake payment receipts and OTP request pages from the website, both of which were boldly stamped “FAKE” by NIMC to alert the public.
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