The Bitcoin-friendly online poker site SealsWithClubs was launched in August 2011 as one of the pioneering sites accepting the virtual currency, and it’s had more than its fair share of attacks by password hackers and distributed denial of services (DDoS) crooks.
However, chief exec Bryan Micon says that the hassles have ultimately been to the benefit of the site – players did not lose money or ID details; they were advised to reset passwords; and the defences were substantially beefed up against similar attacks in the future.
SealsWithClubs experienced its first DDoS assault back in late March 2013 and although it was successful in taking the site down for a while, the company ensured that the loss of connection did not monetarily impact its players.
Later in the year, hackers invaded the password database, but again were unsuccessful in accessing player personal information.
This year, the DDoS attackers were back late January, again creating delays of up to 48 hours in services whilst the operator sorted out the problem and strengthened defences even further. Once again, the operator sensibly ensured that no player was financially prejudiced as a result of the connection hiatus.
The reasons behind the latest attack are unclear; no extortionate demands were made, unlike the previous assault, where SealsWithClubs refused point blank to pay ransom and instead fought off the attack.
However, with enterprise-level defences now in place, the operator is confident in the site’s ability to withstand further hacking or service denial attempts.