Posted on: November 17, 2023, 02:06h.
Last updated on: November 17, 2023, 04:41h.
Rivers Casino Des Plaines, Illi., said Thursday that it suffered a cyberattack over the summer that compromised the private data of an undisclosed number of patrons and employees. While the attack occurred “on or around” August 12, it was only uncovered in early November, the casino said in a statement.
Compromised information includes names, contact information such as phone numbers and email addresses, and driver’s license and government ID numbers.
The Rush Street Gaming property warned that hackers may also have obtained a financial account, tax identification, Social Security, and passport numbers for a limited number of customers.
Passwords are particularly valuable to hackers who can sell them on mass to fraudsters via the dark web for use in “credential stuffing” schemes. This is where the fraudster uses stolen credentials to access accounts on different platforms where the user has the same password.
Who’s Impacted
Rivers declined to say how many customers the breach may have impacted. According to Illinois Gaming Board records, there were 273K visits to the casino in the month leading up to the attack and almost 300K bets placed at its sportsbook, with customers also affected.
The casino said it doesn’t believe the issue affected customer passwords or credit card information.
“Casino Des Plaines utilizes robust security protocols.” the casino wrote in the statement. “Unfortunately, we recently discovered a data security incident. Upon learning of the incident, Rivers promptly took steps to contain the threat and secure our systems, avoiding any interruption to our operations or in the services we provide to our customers.”
It added that it had hired a specialist cybersecurity firm to investigate the breach.
Spate of Attacks
It’s unclear who was behind the attack, which is the latest in a spate of high-profile cybercrimes targeting casinos. In September, the systems of both MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment were breached by hackers who caused major disruption, particularly to MGM, which refused to pay a ransom.
Caesars regained access to its systems after paying around $15 million to restore normal services. MGM ultimately suppressed the threat after several days of disruption, resulting in an estimated $100 million worth of damage.
The attacks were attributed to a hacking group variously known as “Scattered Spider,” “Octo Tempest,” or “the Com,” which is currently being investigated by the FBI.
Earlier this week, several cybersecurity executives whose firms have been tracking Scattered Spider complained of a lack of arrests despite members of the collective being “known” to the agency.
