The FBI raids Chinese Point-of-sale (POS) terminal provider PAX Technology for allegedly facilitating cyberattacks on the firms in U.S. and E.U.
- The raid was linked to reports that PAX’s systems may have been involved in cyberattacks on U.S. and E.U. organisations.
- The source said that the FBI and MI5 are conducting an intensive investigation into PAX.
The FBI raids Chinese Point-of-sale (POS) terminal provider PAX Technology for allegedly facilitating cyberattacks on the firms in U.S. and E.U.
PAX Technology is a unit of PAX Global Technology Ltd., a Chinese-rooted company whose terminals are used to process millions of transactions in stores worldwide and has supplied 57 million terminals to more than 120 countries.
According to a report by Gizmodo, a swarm of FBI agents raided the Florida offices of Pax Technology -- a manufacturer of payment terminals, PIN pads, and point of sale hardware and software.
The firm said that no allegation of wrongdoing had been made. "Pax Technology takes security very seriously," it said.
Brian Krebs, an independent cybersecurity researcher, reported that British and American security agencies started investigating PAX Technology after an unspecified U.S. payment processor noticed unusual network packet originating from the company’s payment terminals.
According to Krebs’s report, the FBI raid on Tuesday was linked to information that PAX’s systems may be involved in cyber-attacks on U.S. and E.U. organisations. There are suspicions that its terminals had been used as a “command and control” staging point for conducting hacks and collecting information.
The source said two major financial providers — one in the United States and one in the United Kingdom — had already begun pulling PAX terminals from their payment infrastructure. Two different sources verified this claim.
“The FBI Jacksonville Division, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, and Naval Criminal Investigative Services, and with the support of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, executed a court-authorised search in furtherance of a federal investigation," said the FBI officials.
"Pax UK can confirm there have been no security breaches, no data compromises, and there is no risk of a compromise, ” said the company’s British office in a letter to U.K. customers, obtained by BBC News.
For the latest cyber threats and the latest hacking news please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter.
You may be interested in reading: How to Survive the COVID Time Cyber Security Threats?