April 2023 marked by cyber attacks!
Around mid-April, the eleven land-based casinos of the Vikings group fell victim to a large-scale cyber-attack. Some of the establishments in question, such as the one in Bourbon-Lancy, in the Saône-et-Loire region, were only able to reopen their doors on Friday 28 April. What do we know at this stage of the events? Should casino players fear for their private information? What about the hackers and their modus operandi?
Vikings Group casinos targeted by hackers
The Houlgate casino, located in the Calvados department, was the first to be victim of a cyber-attack on Wednesday, April 19. In the aftermath, other “ransomware” attacks targeted the Bussang, Vittel and Bourbon-Lancy casinos, before the entire Vikings network was put out of service.
While a complaint was filed by the group and cyberforensic investigations were launched, the management of the casinos concerned publicly announced that they had been the subject of computer attacks. These cyber attacks were detected through the IT services of Vikings Casinosby means of its supervision consoles.
” We have shut down our information system to protect our customers’ data. While investigations are still ongoing, we want to reassure our players that no data theft has been identified “, the Vikings group said in a statement.
A complaint has been filed and a crisis unit set up
It should be noted that the Vikings group has already filed a complaint with the French National Agency for Information Systems Security (ANSSI) and the CNIL (Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés). As mentioned above, the investigation is still ongoing but Vikings Casinos has taken the lead by setting up a crisis unit along with monitoring measures. ” The objective is to steer the resolution of the incident and to ensure that no data leakage has occurred that may not have been seen by the forensic analysis “, comments a Vikings manager.
In any case, Vikings Casinos, assisted by expert cybersecurity providersis doing everything possible to ensure that the situation returns to normal as quickly as possible. The latest news is that the games at the Houlgate, Bussang and Vittel casinos are once again open with a mode adapted to the group’s possibilities.
As for the group’s other casinos – notably those in Sanary-sur-Mer and Fréjus, located in the Var region – these should be operational again as of Tuesday, May 02. ” More fear than harm, customer data and ours were not stolen “Christophe Valeau, the new general manager of the Vikings casino in Sanary-sur-Mer, explained in a reassuring tone to France Bleu.
