Canadian casino data stolen by hackers

One of the biggest gambling facilities in Canada have suffered a series of cyber attacks in the last few weeks and again this week.

Canada.- Today (Friday,) the River Cree Resort and Casino in Canada denounced the facility was the victim of a cyber attack on Monday, alerting the authorities and cyber security experts. This is not the first cyber attack the casino suffered, as there has been a series of attacks in the last few weeks.

The River Cree, is one of the biggest casinos in Canada, featuring more than 38 gaming tables, 1,000 slot machines, two ice rinks and a hotel. The casino CEO, Robert Morton said: “We wanted to alert anyone potentially affected quickly and directly. We are in the process of contacting those patrons and employees whose information may have been compromised and will provide them with recommended steps they can now take to protect themselves.”

After the theft of Bangladeshi funds, allegedly perpetrated by hackers, FireEye, an American cyber security firm is investigating both attacks. FireEye sent agents to Bangladesh and the Canadian casino to try to gather more information and to find out who was behind the cyber attacks. They are focusing on the malware the hackers used to infiltrate the computer system, the internet domains and those who registered them and the source and destination IP addresses.

“Cyber extortion in the 1990s was on a different level of scale and scope, typically demands were for $5-15,000 to make a problem go away; now it’s millions,” said Kevin Mandia, senior vice-president of FireEye. “Now we have an anonymous currency, bitcoin and I’ve always learned that anonymity does wonders for the criminal element far more than it helps well intentioned people.” The expert added, “It’s one more example of why we need to have a little more international co-operation. If we have world where you can steal millions of dollars and there are no risks or repercussions at all, we are not doing something right.”