James Maida, president and chief executive of Gaming Laboratories International LLC (GLI), an industry compliance and advisory group, says that having an outside consultant on cybersecurity by game operators is not an alternative to in-house professionals, but can be an important factor ahead of hackers.
“Of course, you have to do it in-house, you have to have an in-house expert, but I think it’s really important to get a clear perspective from outside,” said Maida (pictured).
He added, “I think a lot of casino regulators, [other] regulators around the world, are now making this case because I just don’t want to be the next headline.”
The president of GLI was speaking to Frank Fantini, founder of Fantini Research, as part of a series of interviews with industry leaders to coincide with this year’s G2E Industrial Fair and conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cybersecurity within the industry has been much discussed in the wake of recent security breaches by US-based casino operators MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment.
After those things, there was a “big headline” and “people dig in and try to fix it, but the headlines disappear,” Maida said, stressing the need for constant vigilance and hard work.
“People always wonder what we (GLI) think is most important in terms of cybersecurity,” he said.
“Actually, GLI is not the most important thing. Meeting with regulators around the world, we hear what keeps them awake at night, and then we retrieve it and provide it to [technology] suppliers,” he said.
A recent GLI discussion paper noted that cashless gaming is likely to be the future of the industry but requires a strong security focus and referred to a recent security breach in New South Wales, Australia.
In his remarks, Maida mentioned the role of protecting the cybersecurity brand Bulletproof, part of the GLI group.
He told Bulletproof that GLI does “thousands of [digital system] penetration tests a year.” The executive added, “We use Bulletproof to check our [own] cybersecurity.”
Mr. Maida was also asked about the use and application of artificial intelligence technology, which is emerging in the gaming industry. He said that the technology’s ability to collect such a large amount of data has made it a potentially “great tool” to protect against predictive tasks such as identifying underage gambling or money laundering.
BY: 안전놀이터