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Are online casinos secure against hacking?

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The gambling industry has become an area of interest that attracts fraudsters because of the enormous sums of money in it. Therefore, many hackers have increasingly started to search the Internet for programs to attack online casinos.

There is quite a lot of money in the world of gambling. This is very attractive to scammers who try to launch various cyber-attacks on the online casino site by all means.

Users have to share a lot of personal information on such sites. And in order not to lose money and winnings, it is necessary to take seriously the choice of platform for games, checking it for cybersecurity. 

Unfortunately, for those who want to steal money that doesn’t belong to them, no such programs exist. Nevertheless, this does not stop the hackers, who are trying their best to test the strength of the protection system of the online casino and get access to the company’s closed code.

Hackers scan a network for vulnerabilities they can exploit afterward. The most common cyberattacks are against little-known companies that use an unreliable platform or skimp on security. This is another fact that confirms the need to play only with online casinos that have a good reputation. 

Common types of cyber attacks

There is a concept of bounty hunters – people who find vulnerabilities in online casinos and provide this information to the owners for a fee. A kind of “white” hacking. But there is one “but”. If they are not paid, these hackers can launch one of the existing cyber attacks on the casino:

  • Port Scan Attacks involve hackers probing for weaknesses in an online casino system by searching for an open port and finding the password. When the web server first starts up, some services are started automatically, thus creating a vulnerability with open access to passwords and ports. To protect against this kind of cyberattack, online casinos are advised to manually configure access rights.
  • DDoS attacks are the most common type of cyber attack. It consists in the fact that the infected software takes the form of a flow of traffic that slows down the exchange of data in the system or causes system failure by overloading it. Such an attack is difficult to trace and can even be mistaken for normal traffic, as hackers use networks of multiple computers to do so.
  • SQL injection is a type of attack in which by entering the right command, the hacker can gain access to the database where the user’s personal data is stored. Online casinos today use robust protection against SQL injection, but there are still vulnerabilities in such systems as well.
  • Ransomware is the most dangerous type of attack, in which malicious programs use encryption and the files on the computer become inaccessible to the owner. The scammers then ask for a ransom in exchange for the decryption key. This type of attack is also the most destructive because the online casino cannot continue operating while the files are encrypted. 

Phishing

Another way for hackers to get the necessary information from both online casino employees and users. Phishing consists in masquerading the internet communication of fraudsters as a real one. For example, a user receives an email on behalf of a casino he likes to play at, asking him to confirm card details or personal information. The unsuspecting person clicks on the link and gets to the gaming platform site, enters their data and that’s it – now they are in the “power” of the scammer. All because the phishing site is a copy of a real online casino and may have a very similar design and even almost identical URL.

In order not to leak your data to the fraudster, always carefully check the content of emails and better type the casino site manually in the search box. If you really need to confirm the data on the site, then when you go to the casino site you will receive the appropriate message in the form of a pop-up window. 

How to protect yourself from identity theft

To protect yourself from hacking and identity theft, choose known online casino. Once you’ve thoroughly researched each platform and learned about free spins and payouts, choose the online casino that best suits your needs. The site you choose should be licensed, verified and validated. And you can also check the site yourself for cybersecurity levels by looking at the relevant information, which is usually at the very bottom of the site or in the popular questions section.

Scammers often hack accounts that don’t contain a strong enough login password. Make sure your password is strong and don’t share your personal information with anyone. Remember, your security is only in your hands.