G2E Asia | Online gaming hacking threats growing

Tony Teo

As online gaming attracts countless gamblers across the world, businesses operating these services have also been subject to further hacking threats, namely distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS), said Tony Teo, Regional SE director for the Asia Pacific at Arbor Networks, a U.S. based software company that sells security systems.
Giving a presentation with the central theme of “Mitigating network security threats for superior online availability in the iGaming industry,” at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E Asia), running from Tuesday until yesterday at the Venetian Macao, Mr Teo recalled that denial-of-service attacks have had a negative impact on the revenue and reputation of numerous online businesses.
DDoS attacks knock sites off-­line by bombarding them with data. According to Mr Teo, DDoS directly threatens one of the most crucial features of online gaming businesses: its availability.
“DDoS attacks are very simple: the hacker knows that when you offer online services the most crucial thing is availability (…) You need to make sure that your online offer is available 24/7, to ensure that your customers can access it at any time. So the hacker understands that this is the most crucial part of your business and they try to disrupt it. And the simplest way to do it is by carrying out the DDoS,” he told The Times yesterday on the sidelines of his presentation.
He added that, “gamblers are particularly impatient, as they want to access the site faster, and when the service is disrupted they will move on to the next company or game.”
Mr Teo recalled that DDoS attacks not only interfere with businesses revenue but have also had an impact on companies’ reputations. “Of course there are other repercussions, but I think the biggest one is loss of revenue, the loss of customer base and loss of reputation,” he reiterated.
Arbor Networks carries out an annual report looking at the development of distributed denial-­of-service attacks. According to Darren Anstee, a senior analyst at Arbor, as quoted by BBC News, the early days of DDoS saw cybercrime gangs extorting cash from websites that are run by betting gambling companies, which could not afford to be knocked offline. But now, he recalled, attacks are carried out by different groups and have grown substantially in size.
A report released earlier this year by Arbor Networks showed that about 40 percent of surveyed organizations said they were being hit by more than 21 attacks per month.
“In 2014 we saw more volumetric attacks, with attackers trying to knock people offline by saturating their access to the internet,” Mr Anstee told the BBC last January.
According to Mr Teo, DDoS attacks are targetting multiple businesses in different regions across the globe, not only in Asia: “It’s a global problem, it’s not really happening in a distant part of the world; it’s happening everywhere. I stressed during my presentation that the Philippines, for instance, have to deal with a fair share of this problem.”
Figures compiled by Arbor Networks suggest that although DDoS attacks are growing in size, businesses are also improving in their ability to spot and block potential threats.
Gathering about 9,000 attendees and accommodating a total of 180 exhibitors, the Global Gaming Expo (G2E Asia), organized by Reed Exhibitions and presented by the American Gaming Association, came to an end yesterday at the Venetian.

ddos attacks prominent during political turmoil

Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks are not only carried out against online gaming businesses but are also used to disrupt online services during particular politically-sensitive events, such as the Hong Kong protests, said Tony Teo, Regional SE director for the Asia Pacific at Arbor Networks, a U.S. based software company that sells security systems.
Mr Teo shared his insights on denial-of-service attacks yesterday, focusing on online gaming, at the Global Gaming Expo (G2E Asia). “DDoS does not affect only gaming. It can also affect politically [sensitive] regions. For example, when Hong Kong has a protest there’s a DDoS going on. When Thailand sees a protest, there are also attacks being carried out,” he recalled.
Forbes reported last year that DDoS attacks had been carried out against independent news websites during Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement, affecting Apple Daily and PopVote, which set up mock chief executive elections for Hong Kong.