Remote access attacks against smaller businesses are a mounting menace, according to a cybersecurity alert released by the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center along with Visa, the U.S. Secret Service and the Retail Cyber Intelligence Sharing Center, which provides threat intelligence for retailers.

Particularly threatening is Backoff, also referred to as ROM malware, which the Secret Service said infected at least 1,000 businesses including Sally Beauty Supply, Staples, Home Depot and White Lodging Services.

Backoff malware steals data by “sniffing” the traffic that flows on a network and identifies card data passed between point-of-sale terminals. The malware, fine-tuned with upgrades, can encrypt connections between command-and-control servers managed by attackers and infected systems. The changes make the malware difficult to detect or eradiate.

“If businesses had properly configured firewalls, Backoff would be blocked before any credit card information is lost,” Kevin Watson, CEO for the Houston-based Netsurion, a security company that protects small business' payments and data, said. “This can happen to any merchant. It's easy to conclude that their firewalls are either limited in what they could prevent, or are not configured properly.”

Watson noted that while investigating the rash of breaches caused by Backoff, the DHS issued a recommendation that includes firewalls and network segmentation.

Watson offered a few steps retailers, restaurants and other hospitality businesses can take to secure customer data: Protect incoming Internet traffic, control outbound Internet traffic, protect on-premise Wi-Fi, use two-factor authentication, update anti-malware software and patch all operating systems as security enhancements are released.