After two decades in the industry, online casinos have developed sophisticated security measures to protect themselves from hacking attempts and other cyber crimes. Businesses that regularly turn a profit may afford to invest in cutting-edge security technology. Websites like them are accessible and free. You may learn more about online casino in New Zealand as you read through.
It’s a foolish plan to try to hack an online casino. Besides being against the law, this would be impossible to execute. Further, scammers may take advantage of inexperienced persons attempting to steal from casinos without the proper skillset.
Can a Casino Be Hacked?
Hacking a gaming operator still occurs periodically, despite extensive attempts to prevent such intrusions. Some of the safest traditional establishments may become targets, just as you’ve seen in the movies. Online gambling establishments are the same.
Spending a lot of money on security measures is usually enough to discourage cyber hackers. If given a choice, they’d instead go for less complicated prey. On rare occasions, casinos do claim actual, successful cyber assaults. There is, therefore, no denying the possibility of hacking.
Criminals might act in a variety of ways to achieve their ends. Some of them are stealing personal information so they can profit from it. That’s how it was with MGM’s gambling establishments. Other parties want to seize power and hold it for ransom. A second reason may be to spy on the competitors.
Attacks on Real-World Casinos
America’s Cardroom
Americas Cardroom, an online poker operator, was hacked in August of 2018, delaying the start of several events totaling roughly $10 million. The criminals were unsuccessful, and the danger was removed a few days later.
UK National Lottery
The punishment of an attacker is rare, and this is one of the few cases when it has happened. Two hackers were discovered and arrested in July 2018 for attempting to breach the UK National Lottery system. Because of this, over 25,000 player statements had their passwords exposed. Hence the attack was only relatively successful.
Since no money was taken, the thieves caught only served a few months behind bars. However, the probe alone cost the lottery company £200,000.
Primedice
This is one of the most unusual examples of a hacker coming out on top. Hufflepuff, a participant in the online dice game Primedice, hacked the system. Successfully betting $8,000 each second, he had scored a whopping jackpot.
The operator conducted an exhaustive investigation but found no misconduct and thus decided to compensate the player, who he believes is merely an incredibly fortunate player. The hacker hacked the provably fair system by flooding the system with queries, causing it to crash during the encryption process and exposing the results to the world.
The gamer withdrew a total of 2,400 Bitcoins, worth around $1 million in 2014. What this means in terms of money in modern times is significantly more. When the operator learned the truth behind his “extraordinary luck,” the company asked for a refund.
The hacker responded by winning another 2,000 Bitcoins and afterward said in an interview that the people who manage Bitcoin casinos are extremely morons.
Land-Based Casinos Hack Cases
MGM
Hackers target various online businesses, not only those that host online casinos. In 2019, 142 million customer records were stolen from MGM casino. Addresses and phone numbers were also made public as other personally identifiable information. Fortunately, no bank records were compromised.
After being stolen, the player database was offered for sale on the deep web. Validation procedures confirmed the authenticity of the data.
Binions and 4 Queens
Computers at Binions and 4 Queens casinos in Las Vegas mysteriously failed. Because of this, they could not fulfill consumer demands and put the slot machines out of commission. For up to a week, casinos were unable to fix the problem. As has been speculated, someone may have hacked into their computers and held them for ransom. However, there was no public statement.
BetVictor
Constant attempts are made by criminals to compromise casino security. However, a stroke of luck sometimes is just what’s needed. BetVictor, an online casino, accidentally made some of its private data accessible to the general public on its website.
A trustworthy user discovered password-protected files and links to permission pages in the site’s “question-and-answer” area. Documents exposed some unsavory details regarding how customer service representatives are taught to handle gamers.
Which Types of Operators Could Be Targets of Cyber Attacks?
Any casino that does not value security measures is in danger, and those in the unlicensed sector are particularly open to attack. Not because they lack the means to defend themselves, but because they are not under the protection of the law. They will be unable to bring hackers to justice.
Conclusion
Today’s gambling sites have stronger security than certain banks. Hackers may make more money stealing from banks than from online casinos since the latter aren’t allowed to hold any cryptocurrencies on their computers.
The servers used by online casinos are often housed in secure locations, with many layers of expensive anti-viral and anti-hacking protection, including first-line barriers, alarm systems, and 24-hour website monitoring. It’s not as if anybody can go into a casino website and find a way to hack unlawfully into the system.
