The online gambling industry has witnessed exponential growth in recent years, driven by the convenience and accessibility of internet-based platforms. However, this surge in popularity has also attracted cybercriminals, leading to numerous cybersecurity breaches that have compromised users’ sensitive data and shaken the trust of users of online gambling sites. In this article, our DDoS expert Craig Lusher reviews the ‘Top 5 Cybersecurity Breaches in Online Gambling Industry’, according to Mac Sources, from a Continent 8 (C8) standpoint. We will highlight how C8’s products and services can help protect customers and provide thought and perspective on the article.

  1. Data Breach

In 2017, a leading online gambling operator, suffered a significant data breach that exposed personal information of over 7 million customers. This breach occurred due to a vulnerability in the systems of the operators, which attackers exploited to gain unauthorised access to sensitive data.

From a C8 perspective, this breach underscores the importance of robust cybersecurity measures, including Security Operations Centre (SOC) and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). These services provide continuous monitoring, detection, and response to security incidents, helping to identify and patch vulnerabilities promptly. Additionally, C8’s Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR) services can help detect and respond to threats at the endpoint level, further enhancing the security posture.

  1. Betting Exchange Attack

In 2011, a leading online betting exchange, experienced a major security breach when cybercriminals accessed the company’s database, affecting millions of customers. This incident highlighted the significance of strong password policies and robust encryption methods to protect user data.

This incident highlights the importance of real-time security monitoring. C8’s SIEM systems could have detected the intrusion and the attackers’ lateral movement across the network, enabling a quicker response and potentially limiting the damage. Thus, the attack underscores the crucial role of SIEM systems in early detection and mitigation of cyber threats.

  1. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attack

In 2018, one of the world’s largest online poker platforms, experienced a massive DDoS attack, causing widespread disruption to its services. DDoS attacks can lead to financial losses, reputational damage, and a loss of customer trust.

C8’s DDoS protection service can help protect against such attacks by identifying and blocking illegitimate traffic, ensuring the continuous availability of services. This service can be particularly beneficial for online gambling platforms, which require high availability to maintain customer trust and satisfaction. There have been many DDoS attacks against the industry since 2018 and in fact some of the largest attack campaigns happened in Christmas 2022 where we mitigated one of the largest attacks the internet has ever seen.

  1. Phishing Incident

In 2020, one of the largest bookmakers in the world, fell victim to a targeted phishing attack. Cybercriminals tricked employees into revealing their login credentials, gaining unauthorised access to sensitive company information.

This incident underscores the importance of employee training and awareness in preventing phishing attacks. C8 can provide thought leadership in this area, offering guidance on best practices for identifying and responding to phishing attempts, and reinforcing the importance of strong security protocols.

  1. Ransomware Attack

In 2019, an online sportsbook and casino, was targeted in a ransomware attack. Cybercriminals encrypted critical data, rendering it unusable, and demanded a ransom payment for the decryption key.

C8’s WAAP service can help prevent such attacks by providing comprehensive protection against a wide range of web application threats, including ransomware. Additionally, C8’s secure data centres can provide an additional layer of protection, ensuring that data is stored and processed in a highly secure environment.

Cybercrime is at an all-time high

The online gambling industry continues to face significant cybersecurity challenges. However, with robust cybersecurity measures, such as those offered by Continent 8, these challenges can be effectively addressed. By leveraging C8’s SOC/SIEM, EDR/MDR, DDoS, WAAP, private connectivity, and secure data centres, online gambling operators can protect sensitive user data, maintain trust, and safeguard their reputations.

Regular security audits, employee training programs, advanced encryption techniques, scalable infrastructure, and proactive incident response plans are crucial in defending against cyber threats. By prioritising cybersecurity, the online gambling industry can ensure a safer and more secure user environment.

Continent 8 is committed to helping the online gambling industry navigate these challenges. Through our comprehensive suite of products and services, we provide the tools and expertise necessary to protect against cyber threats and ensure the integrity and security of online gambling platforms.

In the face of evolving cyber threats, it is essential for the online gambling industry to stay informed and prepared. By understanding the nature of past breaches and the strategies used by cybercriminals, we can better anticipate future threats and develop effective countermeasures.

Reach out to sales@continent8.com or visit here to learn more.

Justin Cosnett, Chief Product Officer at Continent 8 Technologies, talks about the need for operators and suppliers to have visibility and privacy of data coming into and going out of their systems and networks at all times.

Online gambling operators work with a wide range of B2B partners to deliver sports betting and casino experiences to their players. Companies are always communicating with each other over the internet, with data being passed back and forth at all times via webapp and API calls. But in most cases, operators do not have control or visibility over the high volumes of traffic going into and coming out of their systems and networks.

This lack of insight can lead to inefficiencies and also make it hard to spot unexpected data flows to and from unknown destinations. At a time when the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks being launched against organisations in the gambling industry are at an all-time high, this insight and the use of private connectivity is a must for operators to have at all times.

Ultimately, this means that operators and suppliers need access to a private internet that is highly secure and ultra-fast, and that allows them to connect to one another and communicate in real-time. This needs to be combined with a portal where they can monitor and manage all traffic flows while being confident they are safe from the threat of a cyber attack.

As the leading infrastructure provider to the global online gambling industry, we were aware of this need and so developed and launched the Continent 8 Gaming Exchange and Premium Portal. It’s a powerful private internet and exclusive community exchange specifically for iGaming businesses, allowing them to connect faster and more securely than via the standard internet.

It means that our customers can connect directly to others via our MPLS backbone in a Layer 3 virtual private network (VPN), rather than route over the public internet. It offers the lowest latency and the highest levels of performance guaranteed with both local and remote reachability. What’s more, it’s incredibly reliable with IPv4 addressing but reduced public surface area, and an uptime rate in excess of 99.9%.

The technical environment in which companies communicate is important, but so too is the portal in which data and information are displayed.

Operators and suppliers need access to key metrics, stats and data as standard, but they also need an analytical dashboard that allows them to view and monitor all traffic flows. Our portal offers a dynamic map overview for all connectivity between sites and data flows, plus the direction of traffic. As mentioned, this allows them to identify inefficiencies and potential security risks.

Examples of efficiencies they can identify and action would be moving other public internet traffic use to private CloudConnect or MPLS services dedicated to connecting customers to partners or hyperscale cloud implementations.

Of course, security is a key concern for all organisations in the gambling industry and especially when connecting to and communicating with third-party providers. Because the Gaming Exchange is a private network, it is not attackable externally so this risk of falling victim to something like a DDoS attack is minimised.

This is a major upside for operators and their supplier partners, with both facing a growing arsenal of cybersecurity threats. The types of attacks include credential stuffing and phishing as well as DDoS and ransomware. In fact, the industry’s relatively heavy use of third parties makes companies especially vulnerable as they can be subject to attacks against their own systems in the event that a supplier is breached.

The only way to successfully mitigate the risk of falling victim to a cyber attack is to take a multi-layered approach to security. The first step in this is to identify your “crown jewels” and to ensure they are appropriately protected. Protection should cover the data, endpoints, applications and network layers of your business to protect against the different types of threats.

The defences, such as DDoS, WAAP, SIEM/SOC and EDR/MDR, operate together to protect an organisation. This, when combined with using a private internet to communicate with partners, puts operators in a strong position to fight back against attacks and ensure their systems, data and communication networks can run “businesses as usual” even in the event an attack gets through.

Infrastructure might not be as exciting as product innovations, million-dollar marketing campaigns and new market expansion, but it is the foundation for all of these and more. Without the right systems, networks and solutions in place, operators and suppliers simply cannot push the boundaries in other areas while maximising the potential of partnerships they have.

Contact Justin to learn more about the Gaming Exchange.

Source: European Gaming

Justin Cosnett, Chief Product Officer at Continent 8 Technologies, takes a look behind the scenes at what was a record-breaking Super Bowl for the North American online gambling industry. 

The Super Bowl is one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. This year, an estimated 113 million people tuned in to see the Kansas Chiefs rally to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in what will go down as one of the greatest contests in NFL history.

It will also go down as a major event in the history of regulated sports betting in North America. Held for the first time in a state where sports betting is legal (Arizona), record wagering volumes were generated during Super Bowl LVII.

In total, more than 100 million bets were placed, up 25% from the previous year. Over the weekend, New York took the crown as king of the betting states with 13.9 million geolocation checks while FanDuel was reported to have taken upwards of 50,000 bets per second and averaged two million active users on its platform during the game.

That’s not all. BetMGM recorded handle was the highest in its history while DraftKings paid out $2.68m to one customer on the Chiefs’ win.

But what do the stats look like from an infrastructure perspective? When reviewing the various Continent 8 sites across our North American network, a few states stand out.

For example, when it comes to change in connectivity throughput for the Super Bowl:

Interestingly, our Toronto site saw an increase of 2,320% overall. This is perhaps not surprising given this was the first Super Bowl event for the Ontario sports betting industry, which fully opened on April 4, 2022. It’s clear to see that sports bettors were eager to wager on the event, a trend that will undoubtedly continue across other major sporting occasions throughout the year.

Being prepared for a surge in betting

Continent 8 is no stranger to supporting high-traffic sporting contests. Whether it is annually for the Grand National or Cheltenham horse racing events in the UK and Ireland, the UEFA Champions League across Europe, March Madness in the US, or every four years for the UEFA Euro finals or FIFA World Cup, we know what it takes to ensure platform uptime.

As the infrastructure partner of choice to igaming and sports betting operators and suppliers, live in 25 US states, and supporting more than 80% of the largest brands in the marketplace (EGR US Power Rankings 2022), we have in place the solutions and support systems that ultimately give operators the confidence they need to maximize the acquisition and retention opportunities these events present.

As standard for identified special sporting events, we:

In addition to this:

What’s key throughout is ensuring our customers are aware of all activity with notifications regularly sent such as IP Transit data, as well as average and maximum traffic in and out.

The Super Bowl is a huge event for sportsbooks, particularly now that the US has opened up online gambling in more than 20 states. Of course, there are other sporting events that are also significant when it comes to betting activity – the Kentucky Derby, for example – and that’s why it’s so important for operators to have the right infrastructure and processes in place.

Why Continent 8 in the USA?

Live in 25+ states: Our expansion in the US began with a state-of-the-art data centre in Atlantic City, enabling customers to take advantage of the sports betting market opportunities in New Jersey, while gaining immediate access to the Continent 8 global network. Today we are live in 26 US states, with Nevada, Minnesota and Georgia in the pipeline.

First-to-market: We have an aggressive strategy to ensure we are the first iGaming hosting provider in state, enabling our customers to capitalise on the fast-growing and competitive US iGaming and sports betting market.

Regulated and compliant: We have vast regulatory experience with strong regulator relationships across states, ensuring a complaint gaming solution for each.

Growing global team: We are a global team with a local presence – we ensure we have a team on the ground in the US to help you expand.

Learn more about our trusted solutions in the USA here or contact the team via sales@continent8.com

Source: EGR North America

Nick Nally, Chief Revenue Officer features in the latest edition of iNTERGAMINGi, the North America Focus. He discusses Continent 8’s 25 years of growth and how the company is now targeting an “aggressive roadmap for expansion” in the US. 

How successful has Continent 8’s iGaming Cloud solution been since its move to the US? What challenges have you had with this product in the US? And which states do you anticipate this solution expanding into in 2023?

The Continent 8 iGaming Cloud has been a huge success in the US market. It is both a Public and Community Cloud and is already available to licensed operators in key regulated states including New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia and most recently Ohio. We will expand to additional states in the coming months.

In particular, our iGaming Regulated Cloud offers a scalable and resilient infrastructure platform that allows customers to host virtual servers, compute, containers, storage and network-edge devices. Cloud offers both operators and suppliers the quickest and simplest route into a new state, and because we have taken a first-to-market approach across the US, they can use our Cloud solution to take advantage of this and get ahead of their rivals.

The main challenge we have faced with our Cloud solution is the same being faced by operators and suppliers, and that is ensuring compliance with different state requirements. To do this, we work closely with each regulator to share our knowledge and experience to help them craft their frameworks and ensure that our solutions meet the standards set.

This close collaboration with regulators has already helped us launch our hosting, connectivity and security services in 25 US states, with additional sites set to go live in the coming months such as Nevada, Minnesota and Georgia.

Could you shed light on Continent 8’s “aggressive roadmap for expansion” in the US? What progress do you expect to have made in the US by the end of 2023?

We plan to be in every viable regulated online gambling state in the US, first. We have taken a first-to-market approach so that our customers can launch their brands in states from day one, and use this head start to drive brand awareness and build large and loyal player bases from the outset. In 2023, we plan to enter several additional states as well as building secondary or disaster recovery solutions in a large number of states.

The fact we power more than 80% of the 2022 EGR Power US Ranking operators is a testament to the quality of our solutions and validates this first-to-market approach.

What other Continent 8 products are tailored for the US and Canada and what makes them stand out from the crowd? Do you have any upcoming products and solutions covering the region and what are your plans/hopes for these? 

What sets us apart from some of our competitors are our cybersecurity products and services. As one of the most attacked sectors, operators and suppliers need a partner who understands how iGaming businesses can best protect themselves from increasing threats. Our DDoS platform has been around for two decades and over the years we have augmented our secure offering with SIEM/SOC and MDR/EDR services to provide a multi-layered approach.

As states and provinces regulate, it’s imperative that operators and suppliers see cybercrime as a business risk.

How important is it to have a local focus for each individual market in the US and Canada despite expansion across the whole of these regions?

It’s incredibly important. The state-by-state and province-by-province nature of these markets make it challenging for operators from an infrastructure perspective. There is no blueprint that can be used to launch into additional states and provinces because each has its own characteristics. This is why we try to work very closely with the regulator in each state ahead of time, helping them craft their requirements for infrastructure based on our unrivalled experience. By doing this, we can also be certain our solutions are compliant from day one which is a major advantage for our customers.

How important is Continent 8’s New Jersey data centre for the company’s US reach and does the company have plans for new data centres across the US and Canada? Please provide details.

Our New Jersey data centre is super important. The state-of-the-art facility is housed within the Atlantic City Convention Centre and is the only tier-three site in the state that has been purpose-built for the online gambling industry. It is a truly unique independent hosting site compliant with international security standards with multi-state interconnection across the US and directly into a global, private network of more than 90 locations across four continents.

It’s also fully compliant with DGE regulations and is the only independent, licensed facility that can house gaming infrastructure outside of a licensed casino. In recent months we completed stage three expansion of the site, with more racks available to customers looking to enter the American market.

How does Continent 8 reflect on 25 years in the industry and what are the company’s predictions for the next few years?

We’ve come a very long way in 25 years, from our first data centre in Montreal to now having a private, connected network spanning the globe that continues to grow monthly. Our suite of solutions is as comprehensive as it is cutting-edge, and our incredible team delivers the best service in the business. This has been key to the customer retention we have achieved, as is our first-to-market approach in North America and other key jurisdictions. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and I think over the coming years we will continue to see the sector scale at pace as more countries embrace licensing and regulation.

What are some of the key lessons Continent 8 has learned in its time in the industry and what would its key message to start-ups be?

Compliance is key and that starts with the infrastructure a company has in place. This is why it’s vital for start-ups to prioritise infrastructure, and to work closely with regulators in each of the markets they intend to target. Of course, this often means selecting an infrastructure partner, and start-ups especially should look to identify and work with those that have experience in complex regulated markets and that offer a full suite of solutions.

How do you reflect on the growth of Ontario as a market since launch in April 2022 and how important has the market become to your company? 

The Ontario market is performing well, and we continue to see additional operators secure licenses and get in on the action. Ontario stands as a great example of how regulations can protect players while ensuring a viable market for operators and suppliers. This is ultimately key to generating high levels of channelisation and fostering an environment that is stable for all stakeholders.

What are your predictions for the growth of sports betting and secondly online casino/gambling/igaming throughout the USA and Canada for the rest of 2023? 

Both verticals will continue to thrive, driven by new states and provinces embracing regulation, rolling out their frameworks and welcoming licensed operators and suppliers for the first time. Sports betting has pulled ahead of casino in terms of the number of legal states, but I think it’s important that iGaming will begin to catch up which in turn will be a major catalyst for growth. It’s an incredibly exciting time for the North American market as it continues to mature with plenty of opportunities for operators and suppliers to explore.

Source: iNTERGAMINGi

What are your goals for 2023?

We will continue to deliver growth across all regions and keep pushing ahead with our ambitious expansion plans for North America and Latin America – two strategic markets for Continent 8 over the coming years. We’re on track to hit 100 connected locations in 2023, a major milestone for the business.

To facilitate this growth, we will be further investing in our team, processes and delivery solutions. This will see us onboard key talent across a range of roles to ensure we continue to provide the customer-first approach we have built our reputation on.

In addition, we will continue investing across our products and network, with cybersecurity being a significant area of focus. Given the prevalence of cybersecurity threats in the world today, we will further drive the adoption of our existing suite of world-class cybersecurity solutions across our customer base and continue to invest and introduce new offerings to further support operators and suppliers in the iGaming space.

Is there anything you will do differently from last year?

We are taking the opportunity to revisit and realign our strategy every year. Continent 8 has been around for a long time and our strong success continues as a result of us being able to remain ambitious, nimble, and provide an unparalleled level of service to our customers. These considerations are supported by our constant investment in our talented employees, unrivalled technologies and ambitious global expansion. Over the last twelve months, we have grown our employee base by almost 40% and we’re not stopping there. In the coming months, we are introducing new approaches to customer delivery, support capabilities and solutions offerings.

What trends/changes do you expect to see in the sector in 2023?

The industry will continue to embrace licensing and regulation, with new markets opening up worldwide, notably in North America and Latin America. This presents tremendous opportunities for operators and suppliers to scale rapidly, but they must ensure they do this while protecting their networks, systems and information. That is why we are the only partner who can help globally ambitious operators and suppliers meet their strategic goals.

Can you give us an insight into what we will see from your business in 2023? Will you expand your offering, enter new markets, launch new innovations, etc.?

2023 is a landmark year for the company as we celebrate 25 years in business. We’ll be spending the year celebrating key achievements and recognising our employees that have contributed to our strong success over this time. More importantly, we’ll be looking ahead at another 25 years as we continue expanding our global footprint, onboarding top talent and partnering with many of the leading brands in the global gaming space. It’s an exciting time for Continent 8.

Source: Casino International

Our CEO and Founder Michael Tobin features in the December edition of Casino International, looking back at a busy and successful 2022.

As 2022 was a post-pandemic year, how did your business operations change?

They didn’t really. As the infrastructure partner of choice for the global iGaming industry, we had to ensure it was very much business as usual during the pandemic, although we did have to adapt to new ways of working. Now that we are post-pandemic, over the last 12 months we have once again been able to travel to events, customer meetings and internal get-togethers. As a global company, operating from over 90 locations, this is fundamental to our business and allows us to deliver on our customer-centric approach.

What challenges did you face this year? How did you overcome them?

Our biggest challenge this year has been deploying our ambitious growth strategy which has covered new locations, products, and members of the team. We’ve been especially focused on the burgeoning US market where we are now live in 25 regulated states with more in the pipeline; each of these connected to our global backbone network.

We have also enhanced our range of solutions with the launch of the Gaming Exchange, a powerful private internet that offers our customers unrivalled connectivity and security, as well as access to a Premium Portal. Security remains a key concern for operators and suppliers, and we have strengthened our solutions which include DDoS, WAAP, EDR & MDR and SIEM & SOC, to ensure customers can mitigate the surge in attacks the industry has seen over the past 12 months, and will continue to see.

Growing our international reach and augmenting our products and services has only been possible because of the incredibly talented, highly experienced global team we have a Continent 8. I’m extremely proud of what we have achieved together this year. 

The iGaming industry is constantly evolving. What are some of the key trends in the sector this year? What changes have you seen since the beginning of the year?

The rapid roll-out of regulation and the ever-changing regulatory landscape has got to be one of the biggest trends and areas of change since the start of the year. This is certainly the case in the US market where new states are opening up all the time. That is why Continent 8 always ensures that it’s one step ahead so that we and our customers can leverage these new market opportunities. In the US specifically, we aim to be the first to market in each regulated state.

It’s also important to touch on consolidation and the arrival of major media companies and brands in the US online gambling market and the impact they’ve had.

What were your goals for 2022 and did you meet them?

Continent 8 is a constantly evolving business and for 2022 we wanted to fill a number of key roles across the organisation. This saw us appoint Brian B. Koh as Chief Commercial Officer and Kristian Valetta as Chief Financial Officer. We now have a powerful leadership time in place to drive the company forwards and are in a fantastic position as we head into 2023 which also happens to be our 25th anniversary year.

What were your highlights of 2022?

This is an easy one for me. I really enjoyed travelling the world once again and meeting with Continent 8 teams across the globe. This is something I’m passionate about. Our people make our business a success, so it’s important for me to be able to spend face-to-face time with members of the team. It’s also been great to attend in-person events and meet with customers, peers, and friends.

Source: Casino International, December 2022

Our Chief Data Officer Anthony Abou-Jaoude features in the latest edition of iNTERGAMINGi, discussing why Continent 8 is in a unique position when it comes to data.

What role did data play in the launch of your Gaming Exchange?

Data was the foundation for the Gaming Exchange. Continent 8 has been serving the global online gaming industry for more than two decades and that puts us in a unique position when it comes to the data that we host, manage and secure on behalf of our customers.

The industry is made up of hundreds of operators, suppliers and partners, a lot of which are talking to each other daily in terms of traffic and data. But customers wouldn’t have visibility of the traffic flows from a B2B or partner perspective, and that is why we launched our innovative Gaming Exchange and Premium Portal.

It is a powerful private internet and exclusive community exchange for iGaming businesses. It allows them to connect faster and more securely than via the standard internet, with no need for additional configuration. It means Continent 8 customers can connect directly to other Continent 8 customers via an MPLS Layer 3 VPN across our private backbone network rather than route over the public internet. It offers the lowest latency and the highest levels of performance guaranteed with both local and remote reachability. What’s more, it is private and reliable with public IPv4 addressing and an uptime rate in excess of 99.9%.

How does the Premium Portal work alongside the Gaming Exchange?

Our customer portal is one of our unique selling points as it provides our customers with access to all the key metrics, stats and data for the services that we are providing to them. The Premium Portal is an extension of this, available to all customers who join the Gaming Exchange. It is an analytical dashboard that allows users to view and monitor traffic flows within and outside of Continent 8 to other gaming partners. This includes a dynamic map overview for all connectivity between sites and data flows and direction of traffic.

This information can support customers in identifying better or more efficient connectivity service use or even identifying unexpected data flows to unknown destinations. Examples would be moving from public internet traffic use to private Cloud Connect or MPLS services dedicated to connecting customers to partners or hyperscale cloud implementations.

Ultimately, we develop innovations such as this to ensure that we not only meet but exceed customer expectations and that is why we are the leading provider of managed hosting, connectivity, cloud and security solutions to iGaming businesses around the world.

Just how important is data analytics and what solutions do you offer to help customers understand the huge volumes of data they generate and have access to? 

Our data transformation started with us trying to solve our own challenges with the rapid growth that we have been experiencing in recent years. A year ago, we formed a data analytics team, designed to better manage our capacity management, monitoring and problem detection.

Furthermore, we enabled data democratisation which made it possible for data to be shared across the organisation rather than being held within individual business units. As a result, more people across the organisation can use data to improve their work. They can work faster and be more productive, and they don’t need to check in with other staff to get their work done.

In solving our own problems, we realised that this transformation could benefit our customers greatly, so we are also in the early phases of implementing a fully-fledged API to provide our customers with more access to data via an industry-standard way of accessing it.

For those not in the know, could you explain data hosting in finer detail?

Data hosting is the provision of hardware, systems, software and infrastructure required to store and access management of data. There are different types of data hosting from managed to co-location and cloud. Each business (and market you operate in) has its own unique requirements when it comes to data hosting, and we work closely with our customers to build bespoke solutions that meet their specific needs. In recent years, we have seen a shift towards companies using the cloud to host their data, allowing them to unlock the tremendous benefits it offers.

Take our Public Cloud solution as an example, available in multiple iGaming markets such as Atlantic City, Isle of Man, Colombia, and Gibraltar to name a few. Customers have the ability to scale bandwidth up and down in line with demand. Another significant upside to the cloud is that it eliminates the need for ongoing hardware investment, providing flexibility to pay for resources as required. Continent 8 fully manages the Cloud environment by up to and including the Hypervisor, whilst enabling customers to have complete control and management of their internal systems and data. This removes the need for customers to maintain and support the infrastructure and instead focus on running their business.

Many players are rightfully concerned about how their data is stored and released. What security measures does your company take to ensure a player’s online safety?

We have more than 20 years of experience protecting data in the online gaming space. Our knowledge tells us that organisations, in terms of data security, should take a layered approach.

There is a range of solutions this should include: DDoS, WAAP, Endpoint Protection and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). We recently enhanced our Secure offering with Managed Threat Detection & Response solutions. This is a complete end-to-end proactive threat solution combining advanced SIEM/EDR/SOAR/ML technologies with proven 24/7 SOC resources.  This gives businesses and organisations unprecedented visibility and response capabilities against known and unknown threats at a time when cybercriminals are really upping the ante. This in turn allows our operator customers to reassure their players that their data is being stored to the highest possible standards.

How has regulation influenced your company?

Regulation is hugely complex, but it is vital that we understand the requirements in each of the markets we offer our products and solutions. We also have a first-to-market approach, so we have to make sure that we are part of the discussions from day one and use our experience and expertise to help regulators when it comes to creating their frameworks and specifically in relation to infrastructure, hosting, connectivity and security. By working hand in hand with policymakers, Continent 8 has emerged as the provider of choice for some of the biggest gambling operators in the world and in fast-growth markets such as the US, Latin America and Canada. This approach also ensures we remain ahead of our rivals.

Take our Atlantic City data centre as an example. Launched in 2019 and housed within the landmark Atlantic City Convention Centre, it is the only data site in the state that has been purpose-built for the online gambling industry. It is fully compliant with DGE regulations and is the only independent, licensed facility that can house gaming infrastructure outside of a licensed casino. We are completing stage three expansion of the site, adding 30% capacity. We also recently became the first provider to launch a regulated Gaming Cloud in the state of Pennsylvania.

The terms ‘big data’ and ‘analytics’ are certainly buzzwords in the igaming sector. Could you explain their importance in terms of how your company utilises them and their influence on the industry in general?

Data and ‘big data’, and the ability to effectively analyse the huge volumes of information that iGaming businesses generate, are key success factors for any operator or supplier. Data allows companies to make decisions based on facts, whether that be for personalisation and demographic profiling, game development, tailored marketing, or responsible gaming programs.

But to do that they need to be able to collect, store and effectively analyse the information in front of them. They also need to be able to do this securely. Continent 8 has been at the cutting-edge of big data in the iGaming industry for more than 20 years now, and that puts us in a unique position and is why we are the partner of choice for some of the biggest businesses in the sector.

Source: iNTERGAMINGi – Issue 4

Security specialist Continent 8 blocked 178 DDoS attacks in Q2 2022. Craig Lusher from our Secure team reviews the latest company data, as well as recent global attacks and trends.

Q2 2022 DDoS stats

Our latest statistics show the number of DDoS attacks almost doubled from Q1 2022 to Q2 2022, up from 106 events in the last quarter to 178.

The stats for the period 1 April to 30 June 2022, relate to more than 20 of our customers based in different locations around the world. Key highlights include:

The location subject to the largest number of attacks during the period was Taiwan – this is an emerging trend.

Craig Lusher, Senior Product Specialist – Secure, at Continent 8 Technologies, said: “Even during this relatively quiet period, we continue to see significant DDoS attacks on our customers. While most attacks remain relatively small, it is now commonplace to see attacks peak at over 1Tbps; we have blocked these large scale attacks every quarter during 2021 and 2022 to date.

 “DDoS attacks, and the sophistication of these, will only increase, so it’s never been a more important time to protect your business and brand.”

The evolving DDoS landscape

What used to be minor nuisances by rookie attackers, have become major and targeted attacks by sophisticated cyber criminals. We continue to see DDoS attacks hitting the news – recently cybercriminals targeted the US Congress website. And back in March the Israeli government was temporarily knocked offline.

In fact, DDoS attacks are now everyday occurrences, with no business vertical immune to being the target. The cost of an attack to your brand is higher than ever, with the average cost of a data breach jumping to $4.24 million as of 2021 (+10% from 2020).

Customers and businesses should be asking themselves, ‘are you protected?’.

Continent 8’s DDoS Protection

Recently named a key player in the DDoS attack solution market (source: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) Attack Solution Market Industry Development 2022 – 2028), we have been protecting the world’s most valuable information for over two decades. Our comprehensive cybersecurity solutions include effective and scalable protection against DDoS attacks.

Our mitigation service provides an effective defence against multi-vector volumetric attacks. Key features include:

Our solution continues to evolve and in recent months we have amplified our scrubbing capacity to 2.0+Tbps, as well as increased our scrubbing centres geographically deployed across multiple continents. Locations now include: Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Miami, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Singapore, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo.

Our proven platform is one you can rely on with a capacity only matched by the largest DDoS providers on the planet. Learn more about our DDoS solutions here or contact Craig via craig.lusher@continent8.com

 

Our third Leaders and Legends panel took place at the recent KPMG Gibraltar eSummit.

The session featured some of the most well-known and respected names in the industry:

The insightful topics discussed included:

The session is now available to watch on demand

Thank you to all our superb panellists and to Micky for moderating a fascinating debate.

Click here to watch our first Leaders and Legends panel.

Click here to watch our second Leaders and Legends webinar.

Meet the Continent 8 Technologies team at SBC Summit North America 2022

Our team will be attending the event being held at Meadowlands Exposition Centre, New Jersey, 12 – 14 July.

Continent 8 will be at booth #221 and is also the sponsor of the popular Networking Party at Meadowlands Racing on Wednesday 13 July.

With a connected network of over 85+ locations globally, including 24 US states, Continent 8 is the trusted infrastructure partner to the fast-growing US iGaming industry, offering market-leading Connect, Manage and Secure solutions. We’re very proud to be the trusted infrastructure partner to over 80% of North America’s biggest operators and iGaming businesses.

Find out more about how our business can support your growth in North America and further afield; set up a meeting with our dedicated team by emailing sales@continent8.com

We look forward to seeing you soon at this event. To learn more about the conference visit SBC Events

Let's work together.

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Asia +65 3165 4649
Europe +44 1624 694625
Latin America +54 11 5168 5637
North America +1 514 461 5120