Report: Home Depot malware, hackers may not be same as Target’s

Atlanta – The program used to steal credit card data in the recent cyber attack on The Home Depot Inc. is reportedly not the same program used in the 2013 cyber attack on Target. According to Bloomberg, the malware used against Home Depot, FrameworkPOS, operates by impersonating a McAfee antivirus agent.



This malware difference indicates the hackers who stole data from Home Depot are not the same hackers who stole data from Target. In addition, the code in the malware used against Home Depot includes references to American imperialism and involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts, as well as links to anti-American blog postings and Wikipedia entries. These references do not serve any purpose in helping the malware obtain data and presumably were left in the code as a message from the hackers.



Some experts had previously suggested the same hackers stole data from both Home Depot and Target, as credit card numbers from customers of both retailers turned up on the same major global stolen credit card site, but the new information indicates this is not the case.



Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Claire McCaskill (D-MO), sent Home Depot a letter requesting a briefing on Sept. 11.