With global online security hacks growing in number and the potential damage they cause increasing in costs, Las Vegas Sands sought expert help to protect customers and employees alike.
International cybersecurity expert and former FBI agent Shawn Henry, who is president of CrowdStrike Services, on October 6 addressed the current state of online security with Las Vegas Sands employees working for the Venetian and Palazzo casinos and urged them to remain vigilant and proactive in protecting their own information as well as client information.
“The cyberattacks we hear about in the media are just the tip of the iceberg,” Henry told casino workers, adding that hacker attacks often go unnoticed for months, the Las Vegas Review Journal reported.
To thwart online attacks, Henry suggests casino workers never give their passwords or other personal information in emails and to be particularly vigilant when using free wifi services at coffee shops, diners, and other locations due to the ease with which hackers can infiltrate such systems.
Hackers generally target customer credit card information and said the damage generally is relatively light for casino customers, but Henry said the damage to casinos can be immense if a hacker successfully attacks a system and manages to obtain customer credit card numbers and personal information they then can use for identity theft crimes.
Unidentified hackers accessed the Las Vegas Sands’ computer system in 2014 and stole customers’ Social Security numbers and driver’s license information, causing the casino to shut down the system for six days, the Review Journal reported.
The biggest problem with cybersecurity, Henry said, is that sensitive information is being placed on infrastructure systems that are up to 40 years old.
