One of the more unfortunate by-products of the digital world in which most of us now live is the rise of cybercrime.
As soon as transactions of data and money started to become commonplace on the internet criminals sensed a whole new vista opening up to them.
Since then it has been a constant game of cat and mouse trying to stay one step ahead of the cybercriminals, too often with the hackers coming out on top.
According to the figures there were over 2,300 attacks recorded in 2023. That might not sound too serious. But the nature of an attack means that many people are affected by each one. In this case the figure was a quite staggering 343,338,964 individuals worldwide.
Any online site is at risk, but in particular danger are ones in which personal details are held and financial transactions take place. So this puts online casinos directly in the sights of cyber criminals.
Why online casinos?
Data is sometimes more valuable than money to cyber criminals. Once they are able to gather information like addresses and bank details of individuals they can start to target them to carry out fraudulent activities. If they can also hack into passwords this potentially gives them even greater opportunities.
Online casino sites store all this kind of information which obviously presents an attractive target for cybercriminals.
But it’s equally likely that it’s the whole site that could be under threat. There have been an increasing number of cyber attacks designed to paralyse a site by bombarding it with activity. Often this is accompanied by a ransom demand in order to have the attack called off.
A number of online casinos in Ireland have reportedly been subject to attacks of this kind, which they have successfully fought off.
The first line of defence
Of the different ways in which online casino sites protect themselves from this kind of crime, the first to come into play is generally a firewall. These are provided by third-party cyber security providers to provide a virtual wall surrounding the site. Firewalls can spot suspicious activity and provide a barrier to any malicious activity from outside. However, the ingenuity and inventiveness of attackers means that they are far from infallible, hence the need for the next security measure.
Essential encryption
All online casinos should use a recognised level of encryption and there’s an easy and quick way to check whether one does. If it’s being used, a small padlock symbol will appear on the left side of the address bar. In addition, the website address prefix will be “https”.
Encryption means that all the data on a website has been jumbled up and can only be unjumbled by someone with the right decryption key.
There are two main encryption technologies, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security. The most commonly-used level is 256-bit encryption and it’s generally agreed that without the key it would take millions of years to decipher the data that it’s protecting.
As well as protecting players’ personal information, SSL encryption also has a role to play in protecting the online casino in another very important way.
Without it, outsiders might be able to get into the software being used by the casino in order to do anything from claiming new player bonuses to tampering with the game mechanics to make the results far from being random.
Player responsibility
Of course, an online casino cannot be held to be the only one responsible for the safety of its players. They are also required to take on some of the burden too.
This is achieved by ensuring that they use strong passwords to prevent unauthorised access to their account.
Increasingly, online casinos are making their guidelines for acceptable passwords more and more complex. So now one can expect requirements to include not lust letters but numbers and special characters too.
Some sites are even starting to demand two-factor authentication in which a unique code also has to be inputted each time a player logs on to a site.
Looking ahead
As cybercriminals become more sophisticated and ingenious, casino security is going to have to keep pace with them.
Fortunately, there are several tools that will help. The first of these is artificial intelligence. This should prove to be highly effective at identifying potential threats at an early stage.
There is also likely to be an increase in the use of biometric authentication for players, using personal facets like fingerprints, facial recognition and even iris scanning.
In addition, the blockchain technology that ensures the security of cybercurrency transactions also promises to play an increase role in site security.
So if you’re planning to play in an online casino soon you now know what to look for to play safe, and how your security promises to be even greater in the future.
