Explanation of the Current Alert Level of GUARDED. The alert level is the overall current threat level. Read more about our approach. On January 27, the Cyber Threat Alert Level was evaluated and is remaining at Blue (Guarded) due to vulnerabilities in Cisco, Mozilla and Apple products. On January 21, the MS-ISAC. And one such instance has come into light after California based Cache Creek Casino reported that it suffered a massive cyber attack in early September this year forcing it to close operations from September 20, 2020. Hacking is the primary risk for online casinos from cyber attacks, and it’s crucial that operators take measures to prevent loopholes and exploits from giving criminals access by the back door.

You've seen enough Hollywood blockbusters about casino heists to know that gambling institutions are constantly in the crosshairs of attackers—online and off. In the digital realm, however, better malware tools and access to deep funding make today's cyber criminals more than a bad movie, especially when lucrative payloads are for the taking.

The Hard Rock Casino has been hit by a series of casino breaches, marking a worrisome trend among data breach victims: most targets have suffered one or more similar compromises in the recent past. This pattern of repeated breaches is especially true of retailers and banks, and increasingly—casinos and gaming enterprises.

In May 2015, attackers were able to steal cardholder names, credit card numbers, and CVV codes belonging to hotel guests and customers. In 2016 they suffered similar incidents due to malware being installed on POS systems, allowing attackers to steal customers' credit card information.

Investigators hired by the casino discovered unauthorized POS network access and the presence of malware, leading to this statement issued on June 27, 2016 regarding the second data breach due to malware. However, this time the attack was more widespread than the year before, targeting the resort itself—as opposed to restaurants and retail locations within the hotel. And like other recent attacks, PoS scraping malware was used to steal customer data as it entered the resort’s payment card system.

In 2017 still more customer data was exposed through a far-reaching breach of the Sabre booking system. While Hard Rock itself was not at fault, they still bore the effects of having their name associated with yet another loss of confidentiality regarding customer data. Eleven hotels were affected.

It may come as no surprise that casinos and gaming firms are ideal cyber attack targets, but how competent are these enterprises when it comes to rudimentary security? Given the volume of privileged financial data collected, you'd expect to see corresponding security measures in place. Let's take a look at some of the top casino/resorts and see if this is the case.

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Bellagio: 751

The Italian-themed Las Vegas hotel/resort and casino scores a solid 751 CSTAR rating. Apparently its fortress-like facade is more than just looks—but a few gaps such as lack of HTTP Strict Transport Security and DNSSEC make for a less-than-optimal security posture.

Caesars Palace: 504

Arguably Las Vegas' most well-known hotel/resort, Caesars Palace—despite its towering facade—has left its digital fortress poorly protected. Lack of DNSSEC and server data leakage are a few of its security shortcomings, along with a 53% CEO approval rating, which increases the risk of internal attack.

The Venetian: 561

This five-diamond luxury hotel/casino may not be the only Italian-themed megaresort on the Las Vegas Strip, but unlike its counterpart the Bellagio, the Venetian lacks various website perimeter security controls—sitewide SSL, DMARC, and DNSSEC, to name a few.

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Are Online Casinos More Resilient?

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Brick-and-mortar gambling establishments are one thing, but what about online casinos born in the cloud? You wouldn't be be blamed for assuming thats casinos are essentially the world's largest banking operations. But unlike banks, casinos resorts are faced with a myriad of risks introduced by on-site retail establishments, service operations, and countless public-facing ATMs and card readers. The Hard Rock Casino may have fallen victim to sophisticated malware and PoS scraping technologies, but if recent history is any indication, proper patching and vulnerability detection could have saved them from a repeat compromise. This is what UpGuard's resilience platform provides: validation that your systems are free from security flaws, vulnerabilities, and misconfigurations that could lead to data breaches and outages.

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