Data on the line
Users of the BetMGM online gambling platform in the US have had their personal information compromised.
The sportsbook announced the news on Wednesday, but it did not give details as to how many users the breach had impacted. The unauthorized breach supposedly had no affect on the gambling offerings of the company, meaning users could use its services as usual.
BetMGM believes the breach took place in May
Some key information accessed in the breach included name, date of birth, contact details, hashed Social Security number, transaction-related info, and certain account identifiers of customers. Despite only actually becoming aware of the issue on November 28, BetMGM believes the breach took place in May. It currently has no reason to believe that the hackers were able to access account funds or the passwords of users.
Investigating the matter
BetMGM confirmed it is “coordinating with law enforcement and taking steps to further enhance its security.” As part of its press release, the operator urged users to keep an eye out for any sort of unsolicited communications or suspicious activity following the breach.
To help minimize the fallout of the breach, BetMGM is offering identity restoration and credit monitoring services to the impacted users for free over a two-year period.
BetMGM CEO Adam Greenblatt is adamant that protecting user data is of the utmost importance. He asserted that BetMGM is taking the matter very seriously and is busy trying to investigate the incident.
Not the first
BetMGM is not the first US sportsbook operator to suffer a data breach. Just last month, DraftKings revealed that it faced a security issue that compromised the login info of certain customers.
about $300,000 in account funds
It encouraged users to only use unique passwords for their different accounts and not to share them with third-party sites. The security issue ultimately led to DraftKings users losing about $300,000 in account funds, which the operator made the decision to refund.
BetMGM co-owner MGM Resorts International has also dealt with major data breaches in the past. A data breach in 2019 reportedly led to the personal information of more than 142 million hotel guests being compromised. No financial data was exposed in that case.