Australian Online Casinos Attacked by Hackers

September 02, 2009 | News Category: Online Casinos

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Online casinos use many forms of protection against hackers, yet some hacking attacks are difficult to both predict and then avoid. Online casinos that accept sports betting in Australia have been targeted by hackers who are finding ways to simply paralyze the sites, so that no traffic will be able to use the site.

The hackers may be using this tactic to ask for funds after performing one of these attacks, however, at this time, no demands have been received, and one therefore wonders what the reason for the attacks have been.

A report appearing in the Herald-Sun, said that a number of sites that offer their players sports betting, have been the online gambling sites that have been targeted.

The way this attack works is that immediately before a busy and key betting time, the site is flooded with traffic, with numbers reaching many times the amount that can usually operate safely on the site. As a result of this, the online gambling site in question shuts down, which prevents all online sports bettors from placing their bets at the crucial pre-game time.

Sportingbet's Australian CEO, Michael Sullivan commented on an attack on their site that shut them down for a number of hours, "It was unprecedented traffic trying to get into the site."

It is suspected that the hackers are of Russian origin. It is likely that hey have used zombie computers which suddenly release an overwhelming amount of traffic to the site in question. The traffic then blocks the server for the website, causing the site to shut down at that time. This means that all the last-minute bets that players wish to place on offline sports games cannot be placed just before a game.

Sportbet's CEO, Matt Tripp said "They are sending through several thousand transactions a second. It's unlike anything we have seen before."

More than one Australian online casino has suffered at the hands of the hackers. The online gaming operators that have reported this to be a problem for them are Betchoice, Sports Alive, Sportsbet and Sportingbet. It is likely that these online casinos have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of the hacking.

In the past, similar instances have taken place, with the likelihood that they have been perpetrated by organized crime with a Russian origin. Although it has not yet happened in the online gambling world, other industries have received demands after such attacks have taken place. The demands explain that if the organization will comply, and pay the money requested by the hackers, then further occurrences will not take place.