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Days after a hacking of its various corporate websites, Sands Casino was back up and operational on the Web Saturday evening. Still, the sites were slow to access at times.
The access time had some initial telltale signs of a Denial of Access (DoS) attack though the slow downloads were more likely attributed to routine maintenance.
A DoS attack sends pockets of useless traffic from compromised servers to a website, thus crippling load ability.
The Venetian Casino website, part of the Sands family, took three minutes to fully load. It featured the following message:
Our websites are currently undergoing maintenance. We expect to be back online very soon. In the interim for booking and other information, please call the hotel directly at 866.659.9643 or 702.414.1000 or click on the links below.
The Sands Bethlehem site loaded within three seconds by 7:30 pm EDT following a period in which the site had not fully loaded for two minutes an hour earlier.
The respective websites were down a total of five days after being hacked earlier in the week.
Nevada gambling regulator said Thursday afternoon that it's unclear whether the hackers who knocked down all of Las Vegas Sands Corp.'s websites on Tuesday had stolen patron data, including credit card information.
Nevada Gaming Control Board chairman A.G. Burnett said regulators' first priority after the world's largest casino operator was hacked Monday was to ensure the safety of player information and the integrity of the gambling systems.
Burnett said Sands officials told him that preliminary indications suggested these two areas had not been breached, but the company was continuing to investigate.
Prior to the websites being taken down, the Allentown, PA Morning Call newspaper published screenshots of the respective sites immediately after they had been hacked. The screenshot included a picture of Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson, a major GOP donor, posing with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a message condemning the use of weapons of mass destruction. Adelson had previously suggested that Israel should drop an atomic bomb on Iran in order to deter that nation from pursuing its nuclear ambitions.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
