Opportunities in the gambling industry is a less discussed topic in the context of software development and cyber security. With the penetration of Android-based smartphones, gambling industry became more easily accessible to the innocent users who are unaware of just using a VPN service. It is no wonder that the gambling industry often the early adopters of the cutting edge technologies. It is obvious that there is a need for the casino websites and mobile app to be secure to maintain their reputation. In our one of the recent article, we have highlighted how Big Data is changing the casino history. Cyber Resilience is a topic which we have already discussed on this website.
The DevOps movement brought a new way both for the developers and the sysadmins making the whole team accountable for the business. The DevSecOps means DevOps plus security.
Cybersecurity is an important issue for online casino operators at present. They are prone to be hit more than the physical brick and mortar casinos. Relatively new addition in the industry is “online adult casino”. The segment, being attractive to the consumers is prone to various exploits by the hackers.
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The Dreaded Breach of Security
In the year 2018, ComputerWorld published an article on the security nightmare of The Star Entertainment Group’s casinos. They do have a robust Risk and Cyber Resilience system. Hackers made their computers to announce the passwords of the staffs upon entering their cards. Their staffs described their experiences with malware, stolen walkie-talkie of the bouncers, stolen USB sticks, defaced kiosk display. The business group arranged cyber awareness campaigns for their employees. Affinity Gaming in December 2013, announced that their payment processing systems had been compromised, impacting around 300,000 customers. They hired Trustwave for the breach. But later, Ernst & Young discovered an undetected second breach.
Such news and articles on the breach of security make it obvious that the gambling industry, at least some mentionable are enough aware yet face disaster in the ways unique in the software industry.
Overview of the Attacks
The gambling industry is a target for criminals, mainly because fraud would give easy liquid cash. The stories of cunning criminals on the movies probably attractive and engaging to the hackers too. The reality is that breaches are increasing and disturbing gaming enterprises.
Cyber-attacks come in many forms including distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. It has been noticed that there is also an attempt of customer data theft to gather their financial information such as credit card details. There has been linked with data sell on the dark web or ransomware attacks. These kinds of attacks concern the gaming industry as they lead to loss of reputation and leading to the loss of clients.
The Protective Measures
There are various data protection acts throughout the globe, including the new GDPR framework. As GDPR compliance does not exist, it provides not much help in guidance. The Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS), as usually regulates the gaming industry. Here, it must be noted that the role of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs), Data Protection Officers (DPOs) is significant. The PCI DSS when managed holistically, deliver immense benefits to the reputation while mitigating the chances of a breach.
Threat monitoring and regular Penetration Testing may explore the vulnerabilities. The security service providers need to have testers with ethical hacking qualifications.
The Cyber Resilience
The consequences of a data breach of a company which rely on information technology are social, financial, reputational. Worldwide, the broader adoption of the cyber resilience strategy can be seen. The goal is to help businesses to become more resilient to cyber-attacks. The multinational Business Continuity Institute (BCI) uses cyber resilience for disaster preparedness and recovery. The steps and logics of business continuity for the gambling industry are the same principles as any other business.
How the Casinos Depend on Technologies from IBM
IBM has published cases studies on the clients like Sportradar. According to IBM, “online gambling has now made it easier than ever to bet on various sports all over the world—from professional league soccer games to youth tennis tournaments, and even e-sports competitions. For consumers, this new model allows bets to be placed in a faster and more convenient manner than visiting a bookmaker. However, this flexibility also makes online gambling a tempting target for criminal organisations to exploit the system by fixing matches.”
Gaming has now moved to modern computing techniques, including AI and machine learning (ML) to increase their odd luck to winning. The IBM i platform supports a wider variety of business from the finance and insurance providers, hospitals, the food industry, organizations to offer their customers the highest degrees of service availability. The IBM i2 solutions with fraud intelligence processes can help to gain deeper insights into the criminal networks which can exploit the online gambling industry to illegally make a profit.
Conclusion
It can be said that the infosec compromises related to the casinos are increasingly coming into the headlines of the mainstream media. While the gambling and casino industry is a lucrative sector for the software industry, the developers with new companies around InfoSec should bear in mind the challenges this sector involves. A single headline of failure news may affect a new company which is otherwise maintaining the standards. Hacking efforts essentially may involve a breach of physical security which almost always out of reach of the developers to access. The business owners from an unused to InfoSec sector may have more expectations and different gaps. Even with such negative probabilities, the leading software consultancies on this earth including IBM are actively working for the gambling industry.
