bitdefender.com | Security researchers have demonstrated how they were able to exploit a flaw which allowed them to hack the card-shuffling devices used in casinos and poker rooms.
The “Official Shuffler of the World Series of Poker”, the DeckMate 2, came under the scrutiny of researchers from IOActive who wanted to find out if it contained vulnerabilities which could help somebody cheat in a game of cards.
To understand why the DeckMate 2 became the focus of attention, one has to know a little background on a recent controversy which flared up in the world of livestreamed poker on 29 September 2022.
bonus.com | No electronic system is ever completely impervious to attack, and security research firm IOActive has demonstrated that card shufflers commonly used in retail casinos and poker rooms are no exception. Inspired by the investigation into the Robbi Jade Lew cheating allegations, consultants Joseph Tartaro, Enrique Nissim, and Ethan Shackelfordattempted to compromise a Deckmate card-shuffling system. He presented his findings at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas, where Wired picked up the story.
futurism.com | “BASICALLY, IT ALLOWS US TO DO MORE OR LESS WHATEVER WE WANT.”
Shifty Shufflers
The house doesn’t always win.
Researchers at the security firm IOActive say they’ve discovered that a card shuffling machine called the Deckmate, widely used by casinos and long thought to be impervious, is actually vulnerable to hacking, Wired reports — an exploit that could give a skilled cheater omniscient knowledge of every player’s cards.
tomshardware.com | Gambling is big business, and a casino’s revenue will make the highest of high-stakes bets on the floor look like peanuts. Therefore, casinos implement rigorous procedures and processes, to make sure there is no cheating by customers. However, compared with computers, some security researchers reckon gambling regulations and security technologies are “a bit out of date.” and this leads to interested parties fabricating its own proof of concept tools, using the Raspberry Pi Zero.
fagenwasanni.com | Last year, a scandal erupted in the world of high-stakes, livestreamed poker when a relative novice successfully called the bluff of a veteran player using a poor hand. Accusations of cheating circulated, with poker players arguing that the novice must have had some extra knowledge of her opponent’s hand. An investigation by Hustler Live Casino found no evidence of foul play, but security researcher Joseph Tartaro of IOActive was intrigued by the claim that the automated card-shuffling machine used in the game, known as the Deckmate, was unhackable. Tartaro and his colleagues, Enrique Nissim and Ethan Shackelford, decided to explore the security of the Deckmate further.
brobible.com | People have been trying to figure out ways to cheat at gambling since gambling became A Thing in the first place, and while casinos have mastered the art of warding off (and catching) unscrupulous patrons, there are still plenty of ways to gain an edge—as evidence by a new development involving the most popular card shuffling machine on the planet.
wired.com | Security researchers accessed an internal camera inside the Deckmate 2 shuffler to learn the exact deck order—and the hand of every player at a poker table.
IN SEPTEMBER LAST year, a scandal blew up the world of high-stakes, livestreamed poker: In a hand at Las Vegas’ Hustler Live Casino, which broadcast its games on YouTube, a relative novice holding nothing but a jack of clubs and a four of hearts successfully called the bluff of a veteran player. No one could possibly think that poor hand might be good enough to call a bluff, thousands of outraged poker players argued, unless the person holding it had some extra knowledge that her opponent’s hand was even worse—in other words, she must have been cheating.
ITWORLD CANADA | Researchers at IOActive have found that drones, even those without known security flaws, can be at risk of electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) attacks which enables unauthorized control, data theft, and deliberate crashes.
securityaffairs.com | Electromagnetic fault injection (EMFI) attacks on drones can potentially allow attackers to achieve arbitrary code execution and take over them.
While the use of drones continues to grow, researchers from IOActive analyzed how to develop fault injection attacks against hardened Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).
Minutehack | After two years of global economic shocks, the EU is fighting back. On 20 June, the European Commission released its proposed ‘European Economic Security Strategy,’ which President Ursula von der Leyen has presented as a response to a “more contested and geopolitical” world marked by a “changing nature of…risks.”
