When talking about malware, we all know there are real dangers when it comes to business and the Internet. One factor that most people probably don’t think about when it comes to malware is a retailer’s cash register. A new report indicates that people should indeed start worrying about security woes when it comes to cash registers. The U.S. government in fact, is saying that as many as 1,000 retailers in the United States could be infected with malicious software. This software is geared towards stealing customer financial data. The report was issued by the Homeland Security Department on Friday.

In the report, DHS urged businesses large and small to scan their point of sale systems for software that has been called “Backoff.” This program was first discovered last October and the government had previously told businesses how they could find and remove the program. Despite that warning almost a year ago, it appears some retailers and other businesses have decided they are perfectly safe and that sense of security might not be well-founded.

Earlier this month, UPS announced it was one of the companies that might have been affected by this program. UPS says it is not aware of any fraud that might have resulted from the breach but is offering free identity protection and credit monitoring software to anyone who shopped in the stores that were affected.

Hackers are using malware to affect more businesses all the time and retailers are far from the only targets. Even hospitals aren’t immune from these kinds of attacks but retailers are the most popular target because of the financial data that can be accessed. While the Backoff program is not unique, it is hard to defend against in part because of the sheer volume of programs like it. This is also one of the most distributed pieces of malware. It has also received a number of updates to its programming in the last six months. That makes the program a serious threat to consumers and businesses alike.