Gambling News

"Web Bookies Demand Higher Security Standards"

Internet gambling organizations nervous about cyber attacks. Trying to persuade ISP’s establish firewalls for their customers

Hackers typically threaten e-commerce websites with attacks that can paralyze their sites if the companies don’t pay up. The compromised security, which comes as a series of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, has the potential to ruin online gambling companies because they can effectively slow the ISP’s network.

In response, the biggest Internet gambling organizations in the UK have set up an industry forum and are a trying to persuade Internet service providers to establish firewalls for their customers. This is a concerted effort to minimize Internet security risks.

Peter Pedersen, chief technology officer of Blue Square, an online betting site that experienced such an attack, said they are trying to convince ISPs to distribute firewalls to their customers for protection. After a distributed denial-of-service attack on Blue Square, this has become a matter of keen interest for them. David Yu, chief technology officer of Betfair, expressed similar concerns in an interview last year by “ZDNet UK”. Now some ISPs have already started to address the problem.

Pedersen is urging Internet gambling companies to show a united front against the hackers by sharing security resources. The attacks, when they come, send between one and two gigabytes of data per second, which is capable of clogging a site’s bandwidth and bringing the site to a grinding halt.

The forum has decided to also try and alert MPs to the seriousness of the problem and the threat it poses to virtually all of British business since they are all at risk from cyber attacks. “It is not only the gambling companies that are at risk.”

The UK Parliament is scheduled to discuss the topic for ten minutes on Tuesday and to decide whether to update the 1990 Computer Misuse Act. In those ten minutes, MP Derek Wyatt will introduce a proposal that would make the DDos attacks illegal.

European VP of security strategy for Computer Associates, Simon Perry commended Wyatt for attempting to do something to raise public awareness and address the problem, “but I am doubtful that devoting a mere ten minutes to the problem of cyber attacks is likely to accomplish anything.” These changes to the law aren’t likely to pass anyhow with the next general election only weeks away.

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