Memory Scraping
Noun · Security & Infosec
Definitions
The theft of sensitive data by scanning process memory for useful contents such as payment-card numbers, credentials, or decrypted secrets while they are temporarily in plaintext. Memory scraping was especially notorious in point-of-sale malware that harvested card data between swipe and encryption.
In plain English: Stealing sensitive information by reading it out of a program's memory.
Example: "The point-of-sale breach relied on memory scraping to collect card numbers before they were sent to the processor."