A new research by St. Mary's University in Halifax, Canada, suggests that the $10 billion-a-year online gambling industry is often extorted by sophisticated hackers and organized criminals. The findings of the study, that has been conducted over the last five years in the field of what the researcher calls "Cyber Extortion", show that these sites are targeted at peak times, such as before the Super Bowl or other major sporting events that give rise to betting and gambling.
Anonymous online hackers attack betting and online gambling websites, swamp them with unwanted electronic messages and virtually shut them down. They then turn to the site operators and usually demand $40,000 to $60,000 in ransom in exchange to the release of the website so that users can continue playing.
In recent years there have been several arrests in Latvia, Russia and Eastern Europe and online gambling sites have increased their security measures considerably.
John McMullan, a criminologist at the university said that the hackers often have a business hierarchy, running organizations that are global and invisible, with the masterminds recruiting people, usually via e-mail but they never meet in person. Among them are also bankers, who are able to move money around without difficulty.
According to McMullan, modern criminal groups use the anonymity of the web, as well as different bank accounts and shell companies, to steal from the profits of online gambling companies.
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