Supplier News

US – Everi looks to protect gaming transactions with Infoblox

By Phil - 18 April 2016

Everi Holdings has selected Infoblox, a network control company, to help protect $20bn in transactions each year for the gaming industry.

Everi provides software and payment services for more than 1,100 gaming locations in 36 countries, including every casino on the Las Vegas Strip and 90 per cent of casinos throughout the United States as a whole. With billions of dollars at stake, hackers are devoting a lot of attention to Everi’s customers, presenting unique security challenges. Attacks on Everi’s networks have increased sharply over the past eight months, resulting in as many as 8,000 DNS attacks per day.

“Traditional firewalls and anti-virus software don’t prevent these attacks,” said T.J. Short, chief information security officer and vice president of infrastructure at Everi Holdings.

The stakes are high for organisations throughout the world, with British insurance company Lloyd’s estimating that cyberattacks cost businesses up to $400 billion per year. To protect its business and provide the high level of service its customers expect, Everi Holdings chose Infoblox Internal DNS Security.

“We did a comparison of multiple ways of protecting our DNS, and Infoblox came out on top—well above the competition,” Short explained.

Infoblox Internal DNS Security disrupts malware communication with hacker servers while automatically detecting and blocking the exfiltration of sensitive data. By sharing this information with the Infoblox Reporting Server, Everi can generate detailed reports identifying compromised resources and simplifying the mitigation process.

Ease of setup and use was another area of concern for Everi where Infoblox proved its worth. “I don’t have 50 to 100 people at any of my locations to do this,” said Short. “We’re talking handfuls of people who have to manage a multitude of tools. So the fact that Infoblox actually does automatic updates, the fact that it patches automatically, makes my life a whole lot easier.” This automation is made possible through the Infoblox Grid™ technology, which designates a master appliance that coordinates and synchronises updates with other appliances.

The key for Everi to control its networks is actionable intelligence, which is provided by Infoblox NetMRI and Reporting Server. With an organization spanning the globe and 90 million transactions per year to protect, the centralized IT team needs detailed insight into network conditions at any location. Infoblox gives real-time insight into current network conditions, along with advanced reporting features that help identify security trends to improve decisions to keep Everi ahead of hackers.

“The attackers are getting smarter every day. They’re getting new tools, new ideas, new concepts. So we have to have defenses that are leading edge, that can change, adapt, and update very quickly,” said Short. “Everything we do revolves around the Internet, and Infoblox has done a great job of making the Internet more secure for us.”
“Each year hackers affect the data of many millions of people and businesses—this is not limited to any one industry,” said Ashish Gupta, chief marketing officer at Infoblox. “Whether a company is just starting to realize its potential or is a billion-dollar global powerhouse, the reality of today’s digital economy is that constant attacks are the norm. Infoblox helps organizations take control of their network security, so they can focus more on what truly matters—serving their customers and growing their business.”