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.

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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.

Hacking in Online Casinos

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?

Protections Measures

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.

Hacking Personal Data Cases

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.