Aristocrat acknowledges IT data breach

Aristocrat, one of the world’s biggest companies that deploy gaming systems for the online and retail gaming sectors, has confirmed that it had been the victim of a cyber incident dating back to June 1, 2023. No exact date was given in the company’s official statement, but further details were fleshed out as to what had happened during the incident.

According to the company, a "criminal hacker" identified and exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the company’s third-party file-sharing software, MOVEit.

This allowed the unauthorized party to extract data from the company’s servers, which specifically contained Aristocrat employee personal and other data. The company has been able to confirm that extracts of the stolen data had been published on the dark web.

Aristocrat further stated that the company took the issue very seriously and it had made sure to contain the incident and patch the vulnerability in the software. The company has similarly passed all relevant information about the incident to law enforcement, regulatory and gaming authorities.

Aristocrat has similarly contracted independent third parties to help it determine the type of data that had been stolen and what mitigation procedures can be implemented. The company is also offering global credit monitoring to all employees to help combat potential fraud that can stem from such services.

Similarly, Aristocrat has been able to complete an assessment of the data breach and what bearing it could have on its business. The company is confident that business will be impacted to a minimum, owing to a proper risk management and mitigation plan that has now been put in place. The company confirmed that it will continue to monitor the situation and liaise with relevant parties to ensure that businesses, employees, and stakeholders are protected.

At the end of June, Aristocrat secured approval from NeoGames’ shareholders to proceed with the acquisition of the latter, as the company is willing to pay $1.2bn to secure the deal. Aristocrat employs 7,500 people worldwide who work in 20 different jurisdictions. The company presently runs its business across three dedicated divisions to wit Anaxi, the online RMG arm, Aristocrat Gaming, and not least, Pixel United which includes the company’s Product Madness, Plarium and Big Fish Games business units.

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