Recently, Gateway Casinos & Entertainment suffered a massive cyber-attack on its Ontario operators, and employees of Casino Rama are far from happy. Many current and former employees of the property are upset that the April ransomware attack on the company which suspended its day-to-day activities in the province may have led to a breach of information.
On April 16, 2023, Gateway Casinos & Entertainment announced an imminent closure of all its gaming properties across Ontario, including Casino Rama close to Orillia. Almost all of the operatorās facilities reopened after two weeks, but Casino Rama took its time and restarted work on May 9, 2023. Hence leaving staff out of work for the longest out of all properties.
Investigation Still Ongoing
A few days after the closure of all amenities, the company also issued an update. It reported it has hired third-party cyber experts to help it restore its IT systems. This week, the operator said the investigation into a possible data leak is ongoing, while also noting that it may have led to a breach of information of certain current and former employees in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
It said that it was unaware of any misuse of data and is currently notifying employees to prepare them for potential unauthorized access to their personal information. Along with that, the company teamed up with Equifax, which is a credit reporting agency, to provide credit monitoring and identity theft protection for its current and ex-staff members.
Greg Weaver, Unifor’s chairperson for Casino Rama and second vice-president for Unifor Local 1090 said the union called for credit monitoring since the occurrence of the cyber-attack. He added the union was discouraged that the operator has opted to wait until confirming that personal info was breached before taking measures to start credit monitoring.
In addition to that, Mr. Weaver commented that workers of the casino are quite upset with their employer and the ongoing situation. He explained that the staff are massively concerned as personal information is confidential and if it was leaked it could lead to some unwanted issues. He said workers had all the right to be distraught as the data could reach the dark web.
Gateway has also reported that it was collaborating with advisors to discover if any personal information of patrons has been affected in the attack. It said that currently there was no evidence of theft of any sensitive guest personal information. It concluded by saying that it provided constant updates from the investigation to law enforcement, regulators and privacy commissioners.
Tech Expert Provides Advice on the Issue
Technology analyst Carmi Levy said that the incident pointed out the need for companies to invest more funds and time in cybersecurity and employee training. The expert said users should keep an eye on their online banking for unusual activities. Lastly, he noted digital criminals usually send out phishing emails which look legitimate to people inside an organization
Source: Evans, Tyler āCasino Rama employees ‘extremely upset’ over breach of personal infoā MidlandToday, June 1, 2023
