Interactive
GAMING INDUSTRY CYBERSECURITY HEDGEHOG SECURITY
Hedgehog Security: Security should never be a secret
Peter Bassill, Founder & CEO at Hedgehog Security, offers gaming companies expert cybersecurity advice and tips for best practice.
Could you tell us more about your background in cybersecurity and the establishment of Hedgehog Security?
Peter Bassill, Founder & CEO, Hedgehog Security
Peter Bassill, Founder & CEO at Hedgehog Security, has been in the Information Security world since 1999 and in IT in general since 1996. His work history contains a unique blended balance between the development of exceptional technical capabilities and business knowledge. Peter is a proud father of twins and enjoys GT endurance racing on the weekends.
To give you some context to the effort required, a simple phishing email takes around 30 minutes to create and send to more than a million people. A targeted email with a greater than 75 per cent chance of being successful takes around 10 days of background research, two days of construction and three days of testing.
P104 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
I initially started out working as a contract penetration tester and cybersecurity consultant. Later, I joined Eurobet and then through acquisitions, Gala Coral Group as their Chief Information Security Officer. I sat on the Microsoft CISO panel for a few years and in 2010 launched Hedgehog Security to provide virtual CISO, penetration testing and consulting services to businesses of all shapes and sizes.
Not all cybersecurity incidents necessarily result in a data breach. What are the reasons for a hack? What types of attack are there?
I completely agree, not all incidents result in a data breach. Tis is why you do not hear about the majority of attacks. I like to refer to attack motives as the three M's: Money, Monotony and Mischief.
Money - Tis is by far the biggest motivator and category behind attacks. But money does not just mean currency; it also relates to information. Te attack could be to blackmail or extort money via ransomware, information disclosure etc. or to simply steal money through account takeovers, card theft or product/service redirection.
Monotony - A lot of attacks happen because the person at the keyboard is bored, has an enquiring mind, and there is simply nothing else better to do at that moment. A large number of criminals will have started in this category. It is where people start to learn the craft.
Mischief – Tis includes many different groups but in essence, it is a person or a group who feel that another person, group, business, entity or whatever have done them wrong or are doing something they do not agree with. For me, this is
the biggest threat to many operators.
Despite emails being around for decades, how successful are increasingly sophisticated phishing emails?
Looking at the frequency of these and you to start to understand how successful they are. You don’t hear of bank robberies much anymore because they are hard and rarely successful. Phishing is easy and when you can target a couple of million recipients, at 0.1 per cent success rate is actually a large number of actual victims, albeit with a reasonably small financial return.
For a significantly larger return, a highly targeted sophisticated phishing attack is needed. Te trouble here is they take significantly more effort and time. It is an effort/reward balance. Te heavier the effort input, the higher the reward could be.
We use sophisticated phishing emails all the time in penetration testing engagements. Te success rate is in the region of 92 per cent (Q4 2019/Q1 2020 figures).
To give you some context to the effort required, a simple phishing email takes around 30 minutes to create and send to more than a million people. A targeted email with a greater than 75 per cent chance of being successful takes around 10 days of background research, two days of construction and three days of testing. Tat’s 20 days all in, for one email to one person.
How susceptible are gaming companies to cyberattacks compared to those in other industries?
I get asked this a lot, and the simple answer is gaming companies are as susceptible as any other company. Tey have the money so that attracts the first M group and they are doing something that some people/groups do not like so the third M is also attracted. Of course, the second M will be there anyway so that’s all the groups to consider. But does that answer the question? Not really.
You see to truly answer the question, you have to look at the dichotomy of gaming businesses. You have the makers and creators, the service providers, the actual operators and the affiliates. Te makers and creators make the games. Tese games will be where the Money and Monotony groups are spending time. Can the game be manipulated? Te service providers supply various solutions to the operators. All three groups will be interested in these aspects.
Is the account management functionality secure? Can carts be accessed? Tere are many parts to consider here. Ten we have the actual operators. All groups will be focused here, as this is the focal point. Te operators carry the big cash and kudo rewards for the attackers. Te affiliates are starting to become more prominent to the attackers. Tey are excellent sources of information and intelligence on users and while I don’t like to make broad brush statements, they have the poorest levels of security.
How do you know if your business has been hacked?
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