BCLC takes down site after security breach
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation had to take down its PlayNow.com site after players' personal information was left open to other users...
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s newly relaunched PlayNow.com online gambling site had to be taken down last Friday after a security breach led to 134 user accounts being compromised, it has emerged.
Of the 134 accounts compromised, users in 12 cases were able to view other people’s personal information. CA$8,000 was wagered by users using other players’ accounts before the site was taken down.
BCLC president and chief executive Michael Graydon said his organisation decided not to make the reasons for the breach public until it knew the details and had informed all those affected.
“Our first priority was really to our players and making sure we got to them first. We wanted to make sure that they heard from BCLC and not read it in the newspaper,” he told the Vancouver Sun.
Graydon’s explanation of the reasons for the first government-owned online casino site in North America going offline contrasted with that offered by a BCLC official last Friday, when it said the site had been taken down after response times were hit by high player volumes.
Politician Shane Simpson from the opposition New Democratic Party was quoted by the paper as saying last Friday’s response by the government and BCLC was “not honest”, as it knew then that the security breach had taken place.
Graydon however denied his organisation had lied to anyone. “We’ve only been open and transparent with the customers affected. We identified them very quickly and we communicated with them very quickly.”
A “data crossover” malfunction caused several players to be accidentally switched from their own account into other accounts, BCLC said. Graydon said he believed this resulted from higher-than-expected volumes of traffic to the OpenBet-powered PlayNow.com site after the well-publicised relaunch last Thursday.
Graydon said BCLC was providing services to eight customers to ensure their identity is protected. He added he does not believe the issue will shake people’s confidence in his organisation.
A spokesperson for PlayNow.com platform provider OpenBet, formerly Orbis, told eGaming Review it was working with BCLC to resolve the issues and to get the site back up and running as soon as possible. No date has yet been set for the site to be put back online.