U.S. Government Blames Iran for Hack of Sands Casino Websites
Senior government officials have reportedly linked Iran to a hacking attack on the Sands Casino websites last year.
Hackers knocked all of the Sands websites offline and published sensitive personal information about Sands employees including their social security numbers in February of 2014. The sites remained down for over a week.
The hacking was determined to have initially occurred at the company’s Bethlehem, Pennsylvania property. And while the Bethlehem Sands CEO eventually resigned, it turns out that property actually was able to ward off the attack.
Security expert Graham Cluley reports that the Sands property was thought to have been a “soft target” at first.
“They bombarded the resort's VPN, used by staff to access computer systems remotely, with a brute-force attack designed to crack passwords,” Cluley wrote on his site.
“IT managers at the Bethlehem resort noticed the unusually high number of failed attempts to log in via the VPN and, realising an attack was taking place, hardened security by requiring more than just a password for access.”
Cluley goes on to say that eventually the hackers were able to determine a senior system engineer’s login credentials for the gambling company’s servers in Las Vegas. The hackers then installed malware that went on to wipe out critical hard drives.
And the alleged reason for this cyber attack?
Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson is an ardent supporter of Israel and, in the past, has called for the bombing of Iran. Adelson just happens to be a major donor for the Republican party, which this week welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak before Congress.
At the onset of the cyber attack, the websites displayed the company's resorts in flames along with an image of billionaire CEO Sheldon Adelson pictured with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A message scrolled across the screen displaying the names, social security numbers and email addresses of employees.
Some believed the attacks were perpetrated by those in the Internet gambling community. Adelson has been on a crucade to eradicate Web gambling in the U.S.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
