Casino pokie chips still down after ransomware case

FEDERAL Group is yet to get its gaming machines back up and running at two major casinos.

Executive general manager Daniel Hanna confirmed the major cyber incident on April 3 was caused by ransomware about 2am.

Nearly two weeks after the incident, the 1185 poker machines at Country Club and Wrest Point have remained shut down.

“As a result of hard work by our team and external experts, including over the Easter long weekend, the immediate incident itself has been contained,” Dr Hanna said.

“The Australian Cyber Security Centre was notified and is co-ordinating relevant law enforcement agencies and continued forensic analysis.”

Dr Hanna said the team had done an “excellent” job to press on with customer service during the scare.

“Federal Group has at all times complied with legal and regulatory requirements related to the incident.,” he said.

“The incident is being actively investigated by Federal Group and external experts we have retained, with the co-operation and involvement of relevant authorities who are assisting, and as such we cannot comment further at this stage.”

Ransomware typically blocks users from accessing their computer systems and demands money from the victim to regain access. Dr Hanna did not confirm whether any personal customer information had been threatened.

He said many businesses across the country had been targeted through the “increasingly sophisticated and complex” cyber attacks. On April 1 Tasmania’s Public Trustee faced an IT incident and was forced to take the organisation’s email system offline. A spokesman said the Public Trustee had worked to fix and investigate the issue, with the team restoring the email system by April 2. The spokesman said no personal or company information was compromised and no data was lost.

The United Workers Union chose not to comment on the incident.