"This is a well-funded adversary taking their time to develop very specific malware to go after very specific targets and a big payday," says Chris Petersen, chief technology officer at security intelligence firm LogRhythm. "This is organized crime applied to cybercrime."
Last April, Visa issued an alert to retailers about network intrusions targeting POS data at grocery merchants in early 2013. The technique discovered by the payment card giant involved installing a memory-parsing program on Windows-based cash register systems and back-of-house (BOH) servers. The clever piece of malware was designed to extract data from magnetic-striped payment card transactions.
By last November security analysts and forensic investigators were quietly discussing cases of big retail chains getting hit by memory parsing attacks, says Avivah Litan, banking security analyst at research firm Gartner.
"I can't give you names, but there were others hit," Litan says. "Target got hit the biggest."
The breaches of customer databases at Target, Neiman Marcus and other yet-to-be-disclosed retail chains have all the earmarks of a methodical attack used in cyber espionage known as an Advanced Persistent Threat.
An APT attack often begins with intelligence gathering. Researchers tap search engines and social media websites to build dossiers on employees likely to have privileged access to wide parts of a company network. Personalized e-mails carrying a viral PDF attachment or Web link get sent. A tried-and-tr! ue ruse: trick a subordinate into following orders from his or her superior to click on the viral payload.
With control of the right logon and password, the attackers gain privileged access to sensitive databases and internal applications.
"This is a huge wake-up call for companies to think about security from an 'inside-out' model and assume the bad guys are already on the network," says Eric Chiu, president of cloud control company HyTrust. "Access controls, role-based monitoring and data encryption are critical to ensure that data is protected from attackers that might be on your network."
It's plausible that the hackers responsible for stealing personal data for 70 million Target customers spent months locating — and systematically infecting — thousands of Target POS registers and servers.
"They may have found an entry point in summer, then slowly compromised thousands of point-of-sale registers, waiting until the holiday season for the transaction volume to reach the highest of the year and for the security teams to get overwhelmed," says Petersen. "To do that all under the radar over a long period of time takes sophisticated malware."
Security officials at Target, Neiman Marcus and other retailers eventually detected the data thefts. And public disclosures have been prompted by the reporting of cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs.
On Jan. 2, US-CERT, the cybersecurity incident reporting body, warned retailers to increase the security of POS systems.
Yet despite the alerts from Visa and US-CERT, U.S. retailers — and consumers — remain vulnerable. The reason: The U.S. continues wide use of magnetic striped payment cards.
The rest of the world, led by Europe, Asia and Canada, has moved to chip-embedded payment cards, which are much more difficult to counterfeit.
"Replacing these cards in the U.S. is a billion-dollar proposition and a five-year time frame," says Anup Ghosh, CEO of browser security firm Invincea. "In the interim, consumers ! need to c! ount on retailers to secure their store and corporate enterprise networks in order to ensure exposed consumer data is protected."
Bloomberg News 
) senior manager Brian Jorgenson was charged with insider trading on Thursday. 
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Office holiday party fiascos (Money Magazine) Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend at the top of the corporate ladder? Mark your calendar for the office holiday party, your annual chance at cocktail chatter with company brass. 
Who's getting hired and what does it pay? 
Shutterstock/Monkey Business Images Thanks to the falling price of turkey and other staples, the average cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people has fallen to $49.04 this year, down 44 cents from 2012, according to a survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation. At just $4.90 per person, that's quite a bargain. But that figure sticks to a fairly traditional dinner, and these days, holiday dining often strays happily from the traditional. So let's check out a few ways you could save some money on your Thanksgiving feast. Turn the Menu Upside Down Rather than planning a traditional menu and buying all the ingredients, start with what's already in your pantry, says Coryanne Ettiene, a cooking show host and mother of three. "By incorporating elements from your kitchen ingredients, you spend less at the checkout and less time at the grocery store, and this time of year saving both time and money means more time for enjoying the holiday season." Planning a menu around what's already in-house has another key advantage: It means you avoid getting roped into buying a slew of ingredients by the bunch, box or bottle, only to use one or two servings. When meal-planning, skip dishes that have an unusual ingredient or call for a pinch of something not already handy. Don't overlook the obvious; many stores offer a free turkey promotion to customers who spend a certain amount. Plan Ahead Since last-minute shopping can be an enormous strain on both budgets and stress levels, plan ahead -- not just for Thanksgiving, but for the next set of special holiday meals, too. "When shopping for Thanksgiving," says Ettiene, "consider your Christmas menu, as well. For example, buying fresh herbs in bulk and freezing or drying the leftovers allows you to save more money when you return to the grocery store to shop for your Christmas menu." Jeanette Pavini, a consumer savings expert at Coupons.com, offers this advice: "When looking to buy fruits and vegetables for holiday events," she says, "look to frozen produce when you can. You're also more likely to find manufacturer coupons for frozen produce." This year, Thanksgiving also falls on the first night of Hanukkah. Incorporating potato pancakes, leek or cauliflower latkes, and other traditional dishes can add a twist to the typical Thanksgiving dinner -- and keep your finances in check. Partner Up Pavini also recommends asking friends and family to bring a dish for the meal. "Usually they're more than willing to do so," she says, "and it can help you stretch your budget." While it's not uncommon for a host to cook the turkey and ask friends to bring sides, without good planning, that can result in six different types of mashed potatoes making their way to the table. To share the weight of Thanksgiving a little more strategically, partner with another family to plan, buy, cook and share the holiday dinner, and ask everyone else to bring a dessert. (Because there's no such thing as too much pie.) Or you can have an open-table-style Thanksgiving dinner with a community organization, church group, or colleagues in a rented space. Buy in bulk, share the cooking and cleanup, and donate the leftovers to a nearby shelter or soup kitchen. A Flash in the Pan Thanksgiving dinner might be just one meal on one day, but it has the power to overwhelm the week's -- or even the month's -- grocery budget. However, with savvy planning and some strategic freezing, the leftovers and extra ingredients might even make it until New Year's. A wide variety of resources can help make planning and budgeting for Thanksgiving easier, such as grocery store apps like Whole Foods, recipe websites like Ziplist, and online budgeting classics like Mint.
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