Cyber Attack Targets Online Gambling Sites

For a period of time spanning at least February 10-18, online gambling sites were the targets of massive distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS attacks), causing many of them to grind to a halt.   

The attacks were ferreted out by the Shadowserver Foundation, which bills itself as “…an all volunteer watchdog group of security professionals that gather, track, and report on malware, botnet activity, and electronic fraud.”  In essence, the Foundation works to keep the internet safe.  The Foundation’s Steven Adair noticed the attacks on February 17 and published his findings the following day.  Several major poker rooms were targeted, including Full Tilt Poker, Titan Poker, and CD Poker, as well as Party Casino.  Many Russian online gaming sites were hit, as well. 

Both Full Tilt and Titan saw their websites go down.  Full Tilt’s game servers were struggling on February 18, as well, which may have been a result of the attacks.   

The reasons for the attacks are unknown, but Adair offered up the idea that they could be a test run before an extortion attempt or possibly the work of a competitor to the targeted sites.  These are just guesses that would be logical in any similar situation, however, and there is no evidence yet to suggest any concrete reason for the DDoS attacks.