How Safe is Your Personal Data in the Online Gambling World?

The online gambling industry clocks in at over $30 billion in worth
of personal data, all of which is at risk from hackers. After a number
of top casinos came under hacking attack this week – how can you stay
safe in the online gambling realm?

Sheldon Adelson has been the poster boy against internet gambling in
recent gambling news, but lately the webpages of his land-based casinos
have been the ones under attack.

The famous Venetian Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, along with Sands
Casinos’ corporate site and casinos in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
Singapore and Macao were all hacked into, meaning that over 300,000 of
its customers were at risk from identity theft.

As the world moves online, more and more are putting their personal data
up on the web, but with the onslaught of porn, gambling and retail
sites having been hacked into lately – what does this mean for the
safety of online gambling?

Adelson Target of Hacktivists

The recent hacking of the Las Vegas Sands Casinos has raised increasing
concerns about the security of customer personal data and has also
raised questions about the safety of online gambling in general.

Safest Online Casino Software Providers:

• Micrograming comes with encryption technology that rivals
online banking. They have a portfolio of over 600 games and is one of
the top providers out there.

• Playtech is one of the best companies in the industry. They hold
certificates from TST and AGCC, which guarantee an excellent level of
fairness.

• Cryptologic comes with an E-Cash system that ensures excellent level of security for their players.

At present, the Nevada State Gaming Control Board has been
investigating the breach of the Venetian, the company’s main site, along
with the Sands Casinos in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Singapore and Macau.

The FBI have stated that they were aware of the hacking issue, but
decline to report on whether they were investigating it, whereas the
spokesperson at Las Vegas Sands has commented that they are
investigating the damage.
What has been unclear though is whether any customer credit card records
have been stolen, since the hackers have also disrupted some of the
internal email systems at Sands, cutting employees off from their
emails.

The sites showed pictures of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson posing with
the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, along with a message
that condemned the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Unlike other casino hackings, it looks like the Sands issue was more of a
political nature, rather than someone looking to grab a few card
numbers and steal a few identities.
The hack was a response to Adelson’s comments about dropping a bomb on
Iran, most likely from “hacktivists” – people who attack sites to send a
political message.

But even so, it’s certainly shed light on the vulnerability of living in an online world.

Online gaming receives a lot of attention from the security
department, and rightly so, since it not only has millions of personal
data stored in its banks, but also access to its customers’ money.

It’s key to remember that privacy is a privilege, and in the vulnerability of the virtual world of online casinos in the US
and abroad, there will be individuals who will always look for ways to
break in.
Denial of Service, known as DOS, is a simple attack that targets an
online casino and basically crashes their server. This renders the
casino unavailable and stops players from entering the site. This means
that casinos can lose millions of dollars.
But it’s not only the money loss that spells out bad news for casinos
hacked with DOS, but if players are winning a game during the take down,
they can sue the casino.

The Russian mafia, targeting online gambling and e-commerce sites as a
means of blackmail, launched a recent occurrence of such DOS attacks.
The attack known as Theft of Goods is perhaps one that is the most risky
where personal data is concerned, since the hacker steals the victims’
credit card details and sells them to shady networks for money.

It is important to note that Theft of Goods often takes place in online
casinos that have weak security.
Other hacking techniques include Illegal Chips, where the hacker
generates “fake” online credits, and Cheating is another form hacking
can manifest – where multiple poker personas are created.

As seen, Theft of Goods is where identity and personal data is concerned, so what can be done about it?

While the hackers in this case targeted Adelson’s Sands Casinos,
they were not online casinos, so the chances are their security isn’t as
tight as its online brothers.

Whenever you sign up to an online casino, make sure to know their safety
terms and features. Pick a reputable casino that is licensed and has
protection via encryption.

The best online casinos have the best data encryption technology
available, but do check the site before you part with your details, also
check that the software used is reputable and has passed scrutiny from
independent software reviewers.

For piece of mind, online casinos that offer an audit trail of their
honest are usually good bets that your information will always be sent
through encrypted lines.

Never answer emails asking for a password or any phone calls from a casino asking for personal information.
Also, with some anti-virus and phishing software on the computer it’s easy to stay safe while gambling online.

While exerting safety measures can help to play it safe,it is still
possible for a security breech to take place online. In 2013, the credit
and debit card information from 40 million customers was stolen from
the retailer Target. Affinity Gaming also had something similar shortly
after.

Affinity Gaming had up to 300,000 customers whose information was at
risk, after 12 of its casinos were compromised earlier in the yeardue to
a malware infection.
The situation was a rare and unlucky one, since a “very sophisticated
piece of malware that got into a terrible location.”

However, apart from shady online casinos, the virtual realm of gambling
seems to have tighter security measures than ever. But is your data safe
and protected?
Sometimes it’s worth taking the extra time to read the site’s small
print.