{"id":62991,"date":"2017-12-31T10:00:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-31T18:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=62991"},"modified":"2017-12-02T18:14:32","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T02:14:32","slug":"cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber Security in 2017: Who Won, Who Lost, Who Freaked Us Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Globally, 2017 saw cybersecurity become a key issue across all industries, and online gambling was no exception. Internet operators\u00a0have long been targets for DDoS attacks<\/a>, which have become more frequent in recent years, as well as more powerful and more creative, and this year, all hell broke loose.<\/p>\n

\"Online
Was cash-strapped North Korean leader Kim Jong Un behind some of the cyber attacks on online gambling sites this year? A study by South Korea\u2019s Financial Security Institute says “yes.” (Image: EPA\/BBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DDoS (distributed denial of service) attackers use malware to harness multiple compromised IP addresses, creating a \u201cbotnet,\u201d which is then used to flood the servers of a company\u2019s website, paralyzing all activity, usually until a ransom is paid.<\/p>\n

\n

Many such attacks go unreported, because admitting a security breach is bad for business. But known victims in the gambling space in 2017 included the UK National lottery<\/a> website, a slew of Honk Kong-based sportsbetting sites, and the Winning Poker Network (WPN), which was repeatedly victimized.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

According to Akamai Technologies, the online gambling sector is now the most frequently targeted sector, accounting for more than 50 percent of all attacks. Gambling sites are easy prey, because it\u2019s simple for cyber criminals to predict the sites’ busiest and most lucrative periods.<\/p>\n

Sportsbooks, for example, can be hit during the World Cup or a big racing festival, and poker sites during their flagship tournament series. The criminals know the chances are that victims will simply pay up and be done with it, rather than risk losing a major customer base.<\/p>\n

Corporate Sabotage<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As such, the UK lottery website was attacked during its prime weekly draw, leaving thousands without tickets, while WPN was hit during its Bigger Online Super Series (BOSS), resulting in the cancellation of the series.<\/p>\n

The WPN incident came with a whiff of intrigue and the suggestion that the perpetrator of the attacks was not interested in extortion, but rather the possibility that a competitor was trying to undercut the site’s business.<\/p>\n

WPN has been regularly victimized since 2014, despite never once having paid a ransom.\u00a0 Instead, WPN CEO Phil Nagy encourages his players to berate and insult the attackers who periodically appear in the site\u2019s chatboxes, announcing the onset of an attack.<\/p>\n

WPN players were doing just that, telling the attacker to \u201cget out of his mom\u2019s basement and get a real job,\u201d when the shadowy figure replied:<\/p>\n

“this is my job
\nanother site give me money
\nfor doos you
\nand i ddos you”<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Doodoodoodoo, indeed.<\/p>\n

State-Sponsored Cyber-Warfare<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Creepy and intriguing, but equally so was the fact that, for one week in April, Hong Kong suddenly became the global center of cyber-attacks (an honor typically reserved for the United States), as scores of online gambling sites were battered by waves and waves of DDoS onslaughts.<\/p>\n

Arbor Security, which spotted the phenomenon, noticed that these attacks largely originated in China. Country-level activity, said Arbor, often denotes geopolitical motivation, or cyber warfare organized on a state-level.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This begged the question: was China, which was in the midst of a gambling crackdown, sending a message to illegal Hong Kong-based sites targeting the Chinese mainland?<\/p>\n

North Korea on the Make<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Another possibility also presented itself.\u00a0 Since attackers can harness IP\u2019s anywhere in the world, the true source is usually impossible to determine.<\/p>\n

\n

In July, a study by South Korea\u2019s Financial Security Institute (FSI), which analyzed cyber-attacks between 2015 and 2017, found that its truculent neighbour to the north was no longer focused on using cyber warfare for acts of disruption or espionage. Instead, the cash-strapped nation was after a quick buck and would frequently target online gambling sites for extortion purposes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But while hackers were stepping up their game in 2017, so were the cyber security firms. In August, researchers from Akamai, Google, Cloudflare, Flashpoint, Oracle Dyn, RiskIQ, and Team Cymru joined forces to take down a virulent botnet known as \u201cWireX.\u201d<\/p>\n

The collaboration was significant, in that it was the first time a group of competing and fragmented tech firms had cooperated to beat the hackers. And that could well be a sign of things to come as we move into 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Globally, 2017 saw cybersecurity become a key issue across all industries, and online gambling was no exception. Internet operators\u00a0have long been targets for DDoS attacks, which have become more frequent in recent years, as well as more powerful and more creative, and this year, all hell broke loose. DDoS (distributed denial of service) attackers use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":62992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,21,19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCyber Security in 2017: Who Won Who Lost, Who Freaked Us Out?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Online gambling sites were increasing targets of DDoS Attackers in 2017, but were China and North Korea involved in the cyber security war?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cyber Security in 2017: Who Won Who Lost, Who Freaked Us Out?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Online gambling sites were increasing targets of DDoS Attackers in 2017, but were China and North Korea involved in the cyber security war?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-31T18:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-03T02:14:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/kims-other-computer.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"624\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"351\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/\",\"name\":\"Cyber Security in 2017: Who Won Who Lost, Who Freaked Us Out?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/kims-other-computer.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-31T18:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-03T02:14:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"Online gambling sites were increasing targets of DDoS Attackers in 2017, but were China and North Korea involved in the cyber security war?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/cyber-security-2017-winners-and-losers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/kims-other-computer.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/kims-other-computer.jpg\",\"width\":624,\"height\":351,\"caption\":\"Were cash-strapped Kim Jong Un and friends behind some the cyber-attacks on online gambling sites this year? 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