IoT (internet of things) technologies are increasingly being integrated into the lives of ordinary citizens with a slightly above-average income, who are the main target audience of gaming portals and conventional land-based casinos. In parallel with this, online betting on sports events, both in bookmakers and on no verification casino UK is becoming not just more popular, but by the volume of money has long exceeded the total revenues of land-based casinos. Therefore, some specialists and mining business in the UK are trying to combine the two.

Trends and directions of IoT implementation

At the moment there are proposals related to the unification of the voice set used for gambling and various gadgets that support this function and have access to the network. For example, the ability to place a bet simply by dictating the appropriate command through a voice assistant or fitness tracker.

The main developments are in synchronisation of IoT devices and online platforms providing gambling services. Two directions of integration are practised: increasing the comfort of the game and the level of security. As for the first direction, only preliminary calculations are made, such as automation of sound and lighting intensity adjustment during the game.

New opportunities – new threats

It is only natural that more attention is paid to security. Here, biometric identification technologies are being implemented in full swing. Not only by fingerprinting, but also by retina scanning, voice recording, facial measurement, etc. And identification can be carried out both in automatic and forced mode depending on the level of account security chosen by the client.

The second area of effort is to increase the level of security and access control to IoT devices themselves. An example of an error in security design is a case highlighted by Nicole Egan at the WSJ CEO Council Conference held recently in London.

A database of high rollers – VIP players and regular high-stakes customers – was stolen from a Las Vegas casino. As the investigation showed, the entrance to the secure local network of the casino was made through a thermostat installed in an aquarium located in the lobby of the institution. This device had a wireless connection that transmitted temperature information. Attackers took advantage of this hole in the defence to log in and copy the database, which is a trade secret and has a high enough value for competing establishments.

Another participant at this conference, Robert Hannigan, who ran the UK intelligence agency GCHQ in 2014-17, presented an analysis of potential threats from IoT devices. As shown, the main vulnerability is the widespread use of default passwords. Testing over fifty models of the most common IoT devices, including video surveillance cameras, office equipment widely used in offices (copiers, printers), and home appliances (coffee machines), yielded disappointing results. For 14 out of 20 devices actually used in commercial structures, the password was selected on average in 25-30 minutes, without using any specialised software. By simply searching the default passwords most often used by the manufacturer.

How to protect yourself from threats?

At the moment, there are several basic security platforms for IoT. For example, GlobalSign’s PKI-based Identity Platform and several others. However, even without using specialized platforms, you can significantly reduce the risks of using IoT devices to communicate with playful platforms by adhering to the following rules:

• Purchase IoT enabled gadgets only from trusted manufacturers with relevant government safety certificates;
• Do not use devices that have been used by other users;
• Collect the minimum necessary information on the device being used – namely, the default password and the possibility of changing it;
• Set a correct password, consisting of letters and numbers, of at least 8, and preferably 16 characters;
• Change the password regularly and update the software.

Conclusion

As research and practice of information security of land-based and online casinos have shown, the use of IoT devices for gaming currently demonstrates a fairly high level of risk of compromising personal, including payment, data. This risk increases significantly when using the function of automatic password entry, account login and default saving from the manufacturer. However, by following the above rules, most of the risks can be avoided.