(Newswire.net — December 3, 2020) — Cyber attacks can be devastating for businesses of any scale or description. But some industries are becoming increasingly bigger targets due to the valuable information they hold.
Casinos are one sector that have been recently hit by a string of cyber attacks.
Ransomware Attacks on Casinos
Two casinos in Idaho and another in California were recently hit by cyber attacks that appear to have involved ransomware—a type of malware that blocks access to your data unless you pay a ransom. All three were forced to close temporarily following the attacks on their systems.
Casinos and gaming websites and venues need to be vigilant and take note to prevent and avoid similar attacks.
One reason why casinos are targeted by cyberattacks and ransomware is because of the valuable data they store and use. They hold large amounts of customers’ financial information that can be valuable to hackers.
Similar attacks have happened in Las Vegas, which is known for its large number of casinos. One famous Las Vegas case of a casino cyber attack targeted the Venetian and Palazzo casinos in 2014, when hackers made away with credit card data, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers.
Protecting Your Business from Cyber Attacks
Just because casinos can be a target for this type of attack doesn’t mean falling prey to them is inevitable.
The very first step is to protecting your company is to make sure that the casino has the very best security and data protection measures put into place. Prevention is always better than trying to fix a catastrophe after it happens, and the harder you make it for them to get in, the more likely cyber criminals are to give up and move on to the next target.
You should make sure that you have an experienced, high-quality Las Vegas IT company behind you that can put proactive, comprehensive cybersecurity measures in place.
Sadly, many hacks and security breaches come from inside organizations. Sometimes such attacks may be malicious, but more often, they occur due to the carelessness or negligence of an employee.
While the chance of human error will always exist (as long as a company has human employees anyway), you can take steps to reduce the risks inherent to a human element. This includes providing your employees with security training and simulations, promptly revoking former employee access as soon as they leave the company, and having a “least access” policy—giving the minimum number of people the minimum amount of access necessary to efficiently carry out their jobs.
Protecting your business against cyber attacks should be a priority, and you should also create an incident response plan in case the worst does happen. This means that should the worst happen; they can move quickly to contain the damage and avoid disruption to business operations.