The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC), the operator of PlayNow, the only safe and secure online gambling operator in British Columbia, Canada, encouraged all players of the platform to update their account passwords following a recent “incident.”
The announcement came Thursday, August 1, 2024, but the BCLC noted that a suspicious high-volume traffic activity on PlayNow was detected back on July 24, 2024. An investigation into the incident found that the platform was impacted by “credential surfing.”
The aforementioned activity is a form of a cyberattack that involves the attempt to use credentials obtained from other data breaches to access a particular platform. To put it simply, an attacker obtains sensitive customer data such as clients’ emails and passwords from other companies and then attempts to gain access to another platform, in this case, PlayNow.
The data stolen from other companies, per BCLC’s announcement “impacted a small percentage” of the platform’s customer account base. Still, the operator confirmed that the affected players were immediately notified, and their accounts were locked because of the suspicious activity.
The BCLC also took measures to ensure that suspicious traffic was blocked. Not unexpectedly, the operator reported the incident to the RCMP, the Liquor & Gaming & Cannabis Authority of Manitoba, which is the gambling regulator in the province, the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner, as well as other relevant regulatory bodies.
No Data Breach or Customer Information Stolen in the Incident
Pat Davis, BCLC’s president and CEO, said that the latest incident was deeply concerning, adding that it should serve as a warning for customers who have more than one online account. He said that the Corporation continues to investigate the matter, adding that there’s no evidence so far that suggests any systems have been compromised nor that sensitive player information was stolen.
“Our investigation remains ongoing, and we have found no evidence that our systems have been compromised, or that player login information was stolen from our systems.“
Pat Davis, president and CEO at the BCLC
Although the operator’s systems were not breached, the BCLC recommended all PlayNow players change their passwords for additional security and as a precautionary measure. “Players should also take this opportunity to ensure they are not using the same passwords for other websites, and that their passwords are not easy to guess,” wrote the Corporation.
Earlier this year, BCLC warned the public about online casino scams. At the time, the operator sounded the alarm that some iGaming platforms falsely present themselves as brands belonging to casinos in British Columbia.
Additionally, the BCLC said that through such scams, the fraudulent operators seek to obtain personal data or financial information belonging to unsuspected players. It is unclear if the aforementioned online scams are related to the recent incident.
