Damage control is being done by officials at an Edmonton-area casino after discovering they were the target of a cyber attack that put customer and employee information at risk.
Computer systems at the River Cree Resort & Casino in Enoch, Alberta, Canada went down over the weekend but the circumstances that caused it to happen weren’t made clear until this week.
Vic Mahajan, the resort casino’s general managers’ first thought was that a technical failure caused the system to go down only to realize later that it was an actual cyber attack, as reported by the HuffPost Alberta. Mahajan said customer and employee data was stolen but that the casino floor was not affected by the cyber theft. However, he would not say how many individuals were involved.
Officials said that police and cyber security experts at a private company were contacted as soon as the attack was discovered. The type of cyber attack or what information was compromised was not revealed by Mahajan. Mahajan said River Cree is trying to sift through all of the details and that he is aware that, “there’s some personal information in our system that would relate to associates as well as customers and how much of that information is gone, we are trying to determine that.”
Individuals whose information may have been compromised in the attack are being contacted by River Cree. In addition, the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission has also been contacted and is investigating.
When the $178 million River Cree Resort and Casino opened on October 26, 2006, just west of the City of Edmonton, it became the first aboriginal-owned casino in the Province of Alberta, according to the Alberta Gambling Research Institute. Built as a “destination” casino the facility houses bars and restaurants, a nine-story 255-room hotel, The Edmonton Marriott at River Cree Resort, with a fitness centre, swimming pool, as well as two ice hockey rinks. The Enoch Cree Nation acquired sole ownership of the property when it completed a deal with the minority interest holder, Paragon Gaming Inc. of Las Vegas, Nevada in January 2014. The casino floor features 34 gaming tables, poker pit, and over 1,100 slot machines.