A new kind of point-of-sale malware similar to that which struck Target is being sold in underground markets for US$ 2,000.

The malware, LusyPOS, was found on VirusTotal, a website where people can submit malware samples to see if one of several dozen security applications detects it.

It had also been advertised on an underground carding website, where people buy and sell stolen payment card data, said Brian Minick, vice president of the advanced security business of CBTS, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based security company.

“It’s the first we’ve seen of it,” Minick said. “It looks pretty new.”

Retailers across the U.S. have been hit hard by malware that scans the volatile memory of computers connected to point-of-sale systems, which handle card payments. Home Depot said it lost 56 million card details to this type of attack over a six-month period earlier this year, one of the largest data breaches on record.

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