Cyberattack Forces Tribal Casino to Shut Down Slots

A tribal casino hotel in Minnesota has become the latest victim of cybercrime targeting the gambling sector. Because of that, the property was forced to temporarily shut down many of its systems until the problem was resolved.

A Cybersecurity Incident Affected the Property

The Junction Casino Hotel, a property in the Lower Sioux Indian Community, just suffered a cybersecurity breach. As guests noticed that something was off, Robert “Deuce” Larsen, president of the tribal community’s council, confirmed that an incident had taken place.

According to Deuce, the casino personnel understood that hackers had secured unauthorized access to certain systems. He added that Junction Casino Hotel is currently working with third-party experts to resolve the matter as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In the meantime, cybercrime experts announced that RansomHub, a cybercrime group with alleged ties to Russia, has claimed an attack on the casino on the dark web. This seems to suggest that the breach was a ransomware attack – a type of cybercrime where bad actors would take hold of valuable information and demand a ransom for its release.  

RansomHub is a fairly new but notorious group of cybercriminals who have hit numerous victims since February last year.

The Casino Is Still Open But the Slots Are Down

While Junction Casino Hotel continued to operate, guests quickly noticed that its phones were not working and that they were unable to make changes to existing reservations. In addition to that, the property has had to cancel bingo nights and shut down all of its slot machines.

One guest reported that she had to contact the casino via Facebook since its phones were down. She added that she left the property once she understood that the slots were non-functional.

In the meantime, gaming tables remained functional and so did most of the non-gaming facilities, including the casino bar and the property’s restaurants.

Attacks on Casino Companies Are Increasingly Common

Since casinos deal with huge sums of money, they have become increasingly common targets for cybercriminals. A large number of casino companies, including some of the leaders in the sector, like MGM Resorts and Caesars.

Elsewhere, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians experienced a similar attack and, as of the end of February, were still trying to recover. In more recent times, Merkur raised leak concerns following a cybersecurity incident. Around the same time, Stakelogic also suffered a breach.

Ransomware attacks can be very damaging to casinos, sometimes costing them millions of dollars to recover. To make matters worse, casinos oftentimes have to deal with lawsuits from clients whose data has been compromised too.