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Las Vegas Sands officials were not responding to inquiries related to customer credit card information following a hacking of its corporate websites Tuesday that continued to leave its digital services in disarray 36 hours later. The site remained out of commission heading into Thursday.
Employee social security numbers were initially displayed on the compromised websites prior to the sites being pulled down. As of 11 am EDT Wednesday morning, each of the company’s respective Web ventures remained inoperable, only carrying a “maintenance” message and individual property phone numbers.
The Nevada State Gaming Control Board was investigating the breach, and the FBI was also aware of the matter.
Las Vegas Sands spokesman Ron Reese told the Associated Press that the company was working with law enforcement to determine who was behind the hacking, and assessing the damage. Reese could not say whether customer credit-card records had been breached. The Sands owns several properties including the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Last December, Las Vegas-based casino operator Affinity Gaming announced that its credit-card transactions had been hacked and warned its 300,000 customers to take steps to protect themselves from identity theft.
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FBI spokeswoman Jenny Shearer confirmed that the agency was aware of the problems with the Sands sites, but she declined to say whether the FBI had launched an investigation.
Prior to the websites being taken down, the Allentown, PA Morning Call newspaper published screenshots of the respective sites after they had been hacked. The screenshot included a picture of Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson, a major donor to the Republican party, 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.
Adelson has also made enemies in the online gambling world as he threatened to spend millions to quash the expansion of legalized real money Web gambling in the US. His anti-Internet gambling coalition had released a new advertisement citing online gambling as a threat to US national security just hours prior to Tuesday’s hacking, raising some speculation that the whole Iranian angle could be some sort of ruse.
Meanwhile, employees of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Sands Casino expressed concern over their personal details being released to the public.
"It's freaking me out," said Joshua Cesanek, a "cage cashier" at the Bethlehem casino, in an interview with the Morning Call. "I can monitor my bank account and credit cards, but how do I monitor my Social Security number? Am I going to have to worry about this for years?"
Anyone who used their credit cards via a Sands Casino Corp. website or one of the physical establishments should monitor this story closely.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
