Gambling Federation Malware

[jmildstone]

The reaction of the IGC and the iGGBA will now be interesting.

Any comments yet??

[jetset]

Not that I've seen. They seem to be keeping a low profile on this, and I guess it is pretty embarrassing for both trade associations.

Interestingly, IGN (which belongs to River City Group - Sue Schneider the ex-leader of the IGC who is still involved with them in an advisory capacity) carried a piece which put the blame for the malware insertion into their downloads on the shoulders of this as yet unidentified GFED manager who apparently defected to Royal Dutch Casino and is thought to have taken a copy of the player database with him. (You will recall that RDC was one of the operations aced out by the malware...that might have been a good thing for the players LOL!!!)

That does not exonerate the CEO at GFED, who has now on several occasions admitted publicly that this was wrong and apologised.

Many do not believe this should be so lightly allowed to pass into the bad section of online gambling history. Some strong statements, perhaps even backed by strong exemplative action should be made here as a deterrent to other irresponsible elements.

[jmildstone]

thanks for the info

[filthyrichme]

I still cant access royal dutch casino - and a lot of other sites too for that matter, and all the malware/spyware stuff is no longer in my pc. I ran spybot and I guess that removed it cause when I looked at the c/program/sys32/host/etc (opened with notepad) it only shows what is supposed to be shown... thanks for that info btw!

Does anyone know what I can do now? Besides having to install my entire system over??? Im on windows 2000 And I am so pissed at GFED for doing this that I too am pretty much speechless. Thanks for any suggestions

[caruso]

Has anyone actually contacted the "iGGBA"? I seem to have mislaid the card I had for the director Wes I got at the ICE with his Email address. There are terms in their Code Of Conduct which this expressly relate to this matter - if they keep them on now it will categorically show that it's all about the dollars.

Not that we don't know that anyway, but at least this'll prove it and add another candidate to the burgeoning list of "seals of approval" industry jokes.

[Lurkio]

I cant beleive I've been missing such a good juicy thread (..complete with bashings and innuendo.. one of my favourites!).where I could have seriously strirred up some s**t..BUT ..

unbeleivably I have to agree with the (so called) moral majority here!!..this all VERY wrong and the pathetic spin and recovery attempted by the perps..is embarrassing.

"After reviewing the complaints from our players, it become apparent that one of our ex-employees was inappropriately and unethically stealing part of our player list, contacting our players and promoting non-Gambling Federation casinos. .."

what a complete load of total bolloc*s...oldest one in the book..come on guys..you can do better than that!

Name him!..and lets see if he sues.

edited for spelling..and thats all!

[jetset]

From Casinomeister News:

STRANGE SILENCE FROM TRADE ASSOCIATIONS

A deafening silence greets Gambling Federation's malware activities

Players and industry observers alike this week continued to comment on the puzzling silence of the Interactive Gaming Council (IGC) and iGGBA, both trade associations in the industry where Gambling Federation and its CEO Flaviano Fogli are members. In fact in the case of the IGC, Fogli is a Board member, making its silence even more inexplicable.

Readers will recall the shocking admissions by Fogli last week that his company had knowingly included malware in their gambling software download to players over a period of some months in order to grapple with a competitor.

This week an article appeared in I-Gaming News which again admitted the blunder, but this time tried to blame an unidentified GFED employee who had left the group to join competitor Royal Dutch Casino and who was additionally suspected of taking details of the player database with him.

Regrettably this individual was not identified, and Royal Dutch were keeping their heads down.

The general feeling among most online players remains one of indignation that a large company like GFED should have behaved in such an irresponsible and unethical manner, with scant regard for player privacy considerations. The fact that it seems that no-one is being called to account in this matter by responsible trade associations, only makes it more bizarre.

As one player pointed out on the still seething message boards:

*Player information was not kept secure.
*When it was stolen, GF did not inform the affected
players.
*GF obviously considered new players signing up to be
handing over their computers.
*They did this for at *least* half a year.
*They only said something when they were caught.
*Their attitude when caught was not of any contrition,
but excuses, pointing fingers, and lying -- the most
insulting kind of lies: stupid ones.

[swampwitch]

This week an article appeared in I-Gaming News which again admitted the blunder, but this time tried to blame an unidentified GFED employee who had left the group to join competitor Royal Dutch Casino and who was additionally suspected of taking details of the player database with him.

Well now...isn't this interesting? An ex GamFed employee joins Royal Dutch. This person, if he could steal a player database, more than likely knew about the malware that prevented GamFed players from visiting Royal Dutch. Are we to believe that this employee didn't tell Royal Dutch about the malware? Doubtful. So why then didn't Royal Dutch make this public, instead of a couple of players on message boards? One would think that poor, injured RD would have been screaming about this from the git-go....instead of waiting for the news to break from ordinary posters.

Without taking any blame away from GamFed.......Doesn't RD's reaction seem a bit fishy?

[spearmaster]

Well now...isn't this interesting? An ex GamFed employee joins Royal Dutch. This person, if he could steal a player database, more than likely knew about the malware that prevented GamFed players from visiting Royal Dutch.

Not likely - the malware was probably installed after this supposed employee left - obviously, there would be no reason to attack RD before such an incident.

Are we to believe that this employee didn't tell Royal Dutch about the malware? Doubtful. So why then didn't Royal Dutch make this public, instead of a couple of players on message boards? One would think that poor, injured RD would have been screaming about this from the git-go....instead of waiting for the news to break from ordinary posters.

Because they didn't know. Simple as that. jmildstone's post was what set all of this in action.

Without taking any blame away from GamFed.......Doesn't RD's reaction seem a bit fishy?

RD's reaction isn't exactly fishy - at least it didn't seem to be unusual until they suddenly started playing the ethical industry operator who would never stoop to or permit such cowardly acts.

Slithery would probably be a better description

[caruso]

http://www.iggba.org.uk/html/graphic...f_conduct1.pdf

2) "Probity and trust: All applicable iGGBA members shall pass a corporate fit and proper test as determined by UK government law and regulation. Anyone found in breach of these requirements by the regulatory authority will have their membership terminated in iGGBA."

Potential cop-out: What is the "regulatory authority" that applies to online casinos located in the caribbean? Other than that, I don't see how malware installation would result in anything less than failure to pass the above test.

3) "Privacy: iGGBA members will provide customers with privacy and security in accordance with UK and applicable global data protection and privacy laws within the requirements of regulators to gain access to player records."

I can't see any cop-out here. I assume that malware installation is in direct contravention with the above.

14) "Breaches of code: Any proven breach of this code by a member of the iGGBA will result in the termination of the company membership from the association and shall be reported to the UK regulatory authority. To prove any breach the Association shall provide for an investigation into the alleged breach before terminating the membership."