Cybersecurity and the Online Gaming Industry

Any industry worth billions of dollars and with many digital moving parts is bound to be an attractive proposition for sophisticated cybercriminals. As quickly as technology advances, so do methods of hacking and scamming. For online casinos, staying ahead of the casino cybersecurity game is critical in protecting themselves and customers playing online casino games.     

Consequences of Suffering a Cyber Attack

For gamers, the repercussions of a cyber attack on the sites they’re using can be potentially devastating. A lot of personal information about customers is stored by online casinos. Some of it is required by law to establish the permissibility of a player to be gaming in a certain geographical jurisdiction, but information relating to bank and credit card accounts is also held online, which makes gamers’ accounts attractive targets. 

For online casinos, damages can be both financial and reputational since gamers avoid sites they believe have become unsafe as a result of data breaches. Sites that have been hacked may also lose their operating license if they’ve been negligent and exposed players to a cyberattack.

How Online Casinos Are Vulnerable

There are numerous ways in which hackers and scammers can attack casino sites. Although the cost of countering these many threats runs into the millions every year, the expense is worth it because it protects a site from even more costly reputation damages. 

DDoS Attacks

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have the effect of shutting a site down. Hackers bombard a server, which, if unable to support the volume of traffic being artificially pushed through it, will effectively crash, resulting in many angry customers.

SQL Injection

Manipulating the Structured Query Language (SQL) code of a site enables hackers to gain access to stored data, including customers’ personal and banking information, intellectual property relating to the company, and much more. 

Account Takeovers

Using data gathered from the hack, customer and company bank accounts can be accessed and hijacked.  

Identity Theft

The same goes for personal information. Using social security numbers and other personal information, hackers can steal the identity of site visitors and use it for fraudulent purposes.

Compromising the Integrity of the Site Content

Cybercriminals can compromise the integrity of a site’s games and their outcomes. For game developers, it’s therefore important that over and above the protection their games will receive from the online casino operator, anti-hacking measures are also built-in.

How Are Online Casinos Protecting Themselves and Their Customers?

Everyone has a lot to lose when an online casino site suffers a cyberattack. As a consequence, online casino operators are investing in the most sophisticated anti-malware, anti-virus, digital security, and specialist IT services in order to protect themselves and their customers. These are some of the ways in which they can avoid being hacked. 

Encryption

Encryption is key to ensuring that any stolen data is rendered useless to cybercriminals. Encryption makes data unintelligible and indecipherable. Game developers of online slots take encryption very seriously in an attempt to prevent the random number generators (RNGs) that guarantee the fairness of their games from being compromised. 

Running Anti-Malware

Investing in advanced anti-malware that detects data breaches, anomalous gaming patterns, and other early alert signals enables online casino sites to monitor and anticipate attacks on their site before they happen.

Banking Protection

Online casino security can be enhanced by adherence to all banking and financial services security protocols. Online casino operators are governed by stringent standards to which they are required to comply, including the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). By adhering to these, they add an additional layer of security to their suite of measures devised to counter cybercrime.

Facial Recognition

Relatively new technology, facial recognition, has already been introduced in some land-based casinos, and it may only be a matter of time before it’s adopted by online operators. Its use can assist in countering cybercrime by monitoring players’ gaming habits, such as the casino games they prefer to play and their whereabouts on the casino floor. Useful as they may be, such measures are often controversial because they’re seen as a possible invasion of privacy.

What Can Gamblers Do to Protect Themselves?

Ensuring that online gamblers remain safe at all times isn’t only the site’s responsibility. Everyone is responsible for their own digital hygiene, and keeping your PC protected at all times is the first step to staying safe. Making sure your anti-virus packages are up to date and that all your access points into online casinos and banking sites are password protected (and not using the same password for everything) are imperatives. Gamers should ensure that the internet networks they access gaming sites through are secure. Open coffee shop networks provide rich pickings for hackers who can easily gain access to your computer through these shared public networks. Don’t ever leave sites open. Once you’ve finished with an application, close it or log off. 

Play with BetMGM in Safety and Security

Criminals will always follow the money and exploit the vulnerable and uninformed. Keeping abreast of all the latest schemes and scams will make you more alert to unusual activity on your device or online casino site.

Make sure you play only on a secure online casino site, one that is licensed, compliant, and reputable — like BetMGM. Simply register here to start your fun, safe, and secure gaming experience.