Pierluigi Paganini in Breaking NewsCyber CrimeMalware

Casinos of tribal communities are losing millions in Ransomware attacks

The FBI issued a private industry notification (PIN) to warn of ransomware attacks that hit several tribal-owned casinos last year.

A private industry notification issued by the FBI’s Cyber Division revealed that ransomware attacks hit several tribal-owned casinos causing millions of dollar losses.

The attacks paralyzed the activities of the casinos shutting down their gaming floors, as well as restaurants, hotels, and gas stations. In many cases, the attackers were able to steal sensitive data from the targeted computer networks.

According to BleepingComputer, the FBI’s PIN states that US tribes as easy targets for ransomware gangs because they have limited cyber investigative capabilities and law enforcement resources.

Experts reported that tribal communities were hit by several ransomware gangs, including REvil/Sodinokibi, Bitpaymer, Ryuk, Conti, Snatch, and Cuba.

The list of tribal-owned casinos that were victims of ransomware attacks includes six Lucky Star tribal casinos belonging to the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes (July 2021), the Seminole Nation’s casino in Oklahoma (May 2021), two Nez Perce Tribe casinos in Idaho (2020), the Ye-Ye Casino in Kamaiah.

The FBI and law enforcement expect a surge of ransomware attacks on tribal casinos.

Unfortunately, ransomware attacks are also targeting business and public services of tribal communities, including hospitals and schools.

The level of cybersecurity for infrastructure operated by tribal communities must increase and for this reason, US sgovernment is evaluating specific measures, including investments, to reach this goal.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, FBI)

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Pierluigi Paganini: Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.