Richmond RCMP has arrested a youth suspect in a cyber attack-related case involving the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC)'s iGaming site.
Last July, BCLC detected and responded to the cyber attack when a "suspiciously high volume of traffic" was found on its PlayNow site.
The Crown corporation's cybersecurity team found the traffic was the result of "credential stuffing," a practice where criminals attempt to gain access to user accounts using leaked or stolen emails and passwords from other websites.
An estimated 250,000 attempts were made to gain unauthorized access to a "small percentage" of PlayNow user accounts, according to BCLC.
Impacted players were notified that their accounts had been locked due to suspicious activity and "took measures to block the suspicious traffic."
Initial evidence from BCLC's database and access logs showed that unauthorized access to some of the compromised accounts came from Richmond.
Richmond RCMP and its economic crime unit took charge of the investigation for eight months and identified, traced, and arrested the suspect on Feb. 28 in Richmond.
Cpl. Melissa Lui, media relations officer with Richmond RCMP, said investigators believe the youth suspect was responsible for some of the compromised accounts and had allegedly bought leaked and stolen login information from a social media platform.
"Based on all situational factors and in consultation with BCLC, Richmond RCMP have elected to proceed with the restorative justice program under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for the offences which were attributed to the youth," said Lui.
Insp. Michael Cohee, officer in charge of Richmond RCMP's Investigative Services, said compromising computer systems can cause significant financial, economic damage and can disrupt critical infrastructure.
"Our Economic Crime Unit will conduct thorough, systematic investigations and build strategic partnerships to advance these serious and major investigations," said Cohee.
Chief compliance officer at BCLC Marie-Noëlle Savoie said they will continue to evaluate and improve PlayNow's security controls to maintain the safety of their players' information.
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