Players of Online Poker Increasingly Targeted by Cybercriminals - Experts

Onlinecasinoarchives.com reported on 26th December, 2013 stating that according to security experts, online poker players are increasingly coming under attack by hackers.

Their theory is greatly supported by online poker player Jens Kyllonen who was struck by hackers when he was staying in a hotel in Barcelona in September 2013 while participating in the European Poker Tour Event and his laptop went missing temporarily.

Kyllonen turned to Internet security firm F-Secure to check whether it was compromised and the forensic examination by F-Secure revealed that a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) - had been installed on the machine during the period when it was disappeared in Barcelona.

The RAT was programmed to silently start whenever the computer was turned on and it gave the operator the ability to view Kyllonen's cards when he was playing online poker.

The security researchers suppose that the malicious software (malware) was installed through a USB (Universal Serial Bus) device.

The register.co.uk published a report in second week of December, 2013 quoting researchers as saying that it is accidently that the poker aces who succeed in both on and offline shall be subjected to an installation of spyware. By installing spyware to secretly watch the screen of online players for high-stakes, a competitor could achieve the upper-hand in a match by spying his opponent's hand."

F-Secure said that this isn't the first time that expert poker players have been beleaguered with custom-made Trojans.

Such well-struck "spear phishing" campaigns rely on thorough exploration to collect details about the person which can be subjugated to hold an attack.

According to news published by onlinecasinoarchives.com on 26th December 2013, Kyllonen has said that he will not give interviews but he has complained online about the lack of security at the hotel. As per the news, he also said that the organizers of the tournament, PokerStars, were not aggressive enough while dealing with the situation.

In all likelihood, Kyllonen wouldn't have known that his computer was compromised had he not returned to his room and noticed that his computer was missing. Luckily, Kyllonen did and therefore he was able to prevent any serious theft.

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