Online poker continues to face threats from cyber crime as news breaks of the latest Malware scam to surface this time from Russia.
If you are living in the UK and want to protect your possessions then you buy the nastiest guard dog you can find and fit your home with a security system. If you are an American then you just purchase an anti-tank missile and Uzi nine millimeter.
Yet most of our most personal possessions are not tangible. Material things can be replaced, but in an ever-increasing cyber world, it’s our identities that are at the greatest risk of pilferage as cyber crime continues to baffle and damage in equal gusto.
Deloitte recently carried out a survey of 2,000 executives that revealed that 79% of them were not confident in their company’s security systems, and yet only 58% of them had budgeted any money to actually do anything about it.
People who view online poker as their primary source of income must also think of themselves as a small business unit. This means that they too need to ensure they have adequate security in place to prevent intrusion from those that are ready and waiting to attack.
Pokerfuse recently broke a story about a new malware threat from Russia that comes on the back of the arrest of high stakes poker player Masaaki Kagawa for his role in an Android malware scam in Japan.
I2Ninja is a Russian malware product that is using the I2P Shadow Internet to allow peer-to-peer communication and access people’s personal information that is stored on their computers.
Pokerfuse report that the software allows buyers to grab information from the users electronic devices including ‘PokerGrabber, ‘which works with all of the top online poker operators in the world.
The robbery works when you inadvertently allow malware to be uploaded onto your system, which then allows the fiend to access the Internet from the affected computer thus enabling them to wreak havoc.
The story comes on the back of a number of high profile cases discussed on 2+2 where individuals have attempted to capture online poker players laptops, in an attempt to upload malicious software, with the highest profile cases being the recent new stories coming out of the hotel debacle at EPT Barcelona.
Online poker players are urged to spend a few big blinds on making sure their online security is tip-top, only play online poker on a poker only device and be very careful to whom you allow access to that device.
