Independent investigation reveals some details
In a new development around the British Columbia’s last year’s debacle venture into online gambling, due to a privacy scandal, the B.C. Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham announced the results of its independent investigation, finding that the BC Lottery Corporation at the time did not take adequate player privacy protection steps, but that this issue is now fully covered.
To remind ourselves, what happened on that July 15, when the BCLC's PlayNow site was launched, was a security glitch, which caused the whole site to shut down after only a few hours of operation, reportedly because 134 "data crossovers" occurred in the period, when players were allowed to see each other’s personal details, including bank and credit card information.
In a statement she made this week, Denham said that the glitch was adequately recognized and handled by the BCLC, which should prevent it from happening again. She added: "However, a second, broader investigation identified a number of security gaps when the PlayNow.com online casino platform was launched, the cumulative effect of which resulted in inadequate protection of customers' personal information."
"The investigation identified inadequate user access controls and malicious code controls, unencrypted data transmission and gaps in BCLC's privacy management framework."
“These security weaknesses were a particular concern,” said Denham, “given the types of people often attracted to online gambling.”
"The inherent nature and high profile of online gaming websites expose customer personal information to increased risk. Gambling attracts the attention of organised crime and these individuals or groups have the means and the inclination to test the security of online gaming platforms," she concluded.
In addition to this, BCLC received and applied a number of recommendations in Denham's report, mostly referring to the way of dealing with privacy concerns, including creating a schedule for when customers' personal information should be destroyed.
