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Does the term "computer security" sound familiar to you? Most people think that if they have antivirus software, they are safe. Unfortunately, it is not so. Of course, having antivirus software installed with updated virus signatures is a required first step, but when your computer is used to play a game where hundreds to thousands of dollars are at stake, more protection is needed.

I know many cases where poker players have lost their savings due to the fact that their opponents could see their hole cards or possessed some other confidential information. In most of such cases players were tricked into installing some form of malicious software on their system.

It should be noted that such attacks are not experienced only by online poker players. Several high-profile attacks in both the government and private sectors have used this method successfully. The RSA security breach (the company engaged in the protection of software and digital signature schemes) is a vivid example. Fraudulent hackers have forced one of the employees of the company to open a document with malicious code, which installed a backdoor that the attacker then used to gain access to RSA’s internal network and eventually portions of RSA’s security algorithm. If such a large company whose primary mission is information security was exploited in this manner, what can be said about millions of online poker players who may become hackers’ potential targets?




Despite the fact that there are many varieties of cyber-attacks, two of them are the most common ones. These are social engineering and phishing. Social engineering is a method of controlling the actions of a person without using any technologies. Today, social engineering often uses Internet to obtain sensitive information or information which is of great value. This topic is very broad and we will not consider it in detail in this article, and instead focus on defenses against client-side attacks such as phishing.

What does “phishing” mean? Phishing – is a way of attempting to acquire sensitive user data, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from popular social web sites, auction sites, online payment processors or IT administrators are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting public. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail spoofing or instant messaging. There are two primary categories of phishing: general and spear.

• General Phishing - E-mails that typically contain a link to a counterfeit Web site and are designed to look like an authentic login page. They will actually capture personal data for cyber criminals, who will use the data to commit financial fraud.

• Spear Phishing – Targets are identified in advance and the e-mails that attempt to trick them into handing over personal data can be highly specific. They might claim to come from a friend or colleague, or seek to exploit the target’s known interests.

The second type of phishing may cause more serious threat. I can easily imagine several scenarios of how attackers could cause irreparable harm to the famous and successful poker players. To be continued...