Casinos on mobile phones and tablets are on the rise. Looking at the most recent security flaw that was discovered in Apple’s operating system High Sierra, a bug that allows anyone to log into a (your) laptop without knowing the password, is only one reason why moving to mobile casinos is the right thing to do.
Apple and its Macintosh, often praised for its operating system macOS, is currently taking a beating for a bug in it’s latest version, macOS High Sierra, one that could easily be considered the worst vulnerability in years. Security researchers discovered a bug that literally allows anyone to break the operating system’s security protections. When anyone hits a prompt that asks for a username and password, e.g., logging into a laptop with multiple users or changing settings, they can simply type “root” as a username, leave the password field empty, and hit “unlock” twice to gain full access to the machine. Even worse, by logging in with “root,” the intruder gains access at the root level, which allows making ANY changes, e.g., prevent the original owner from accessing the laptop ever again. Welcome to the new Hackintosh!
Operating systems for PCs and laptops, such as macOS and Windows, have been under attack for decades and companies such as Apple and Microsoft are working around the clock to patch vulnerabilities. In 2015 alone, Mac OS X recorded 384 security bugs followed by Microsoft Windows 8.1 with 151 and Windows 7 with 147. If you combine all Windows operating systems, Microsoft would be leading the leaky pack!
So what does all this have to do with mobile casinos? Tablets and phones are just other types of computer with one crucial difference. Mobile operating systems are typically more closed and end-users don’t have as much administrative access to them, which makes it harder for hackers to break in and install malicious code. As an online casino player, living in a safe environment is incredibly important. Online gambling operators require you to exchange sensitive data such as your name or details from your chosen payment method. Also, when withdrawing money from your account, you want to make sure that the money is credited safely to your bank account or web wallet, and not intercepted by some third-party.
Apple just released in a statement that “a logic error existed in the validation of credentials” and apologised to all Mac users for this vulnerability. The short-term fix for High Sierra’s security flaw is to set a root password or disable root access altogether. Apple has also released a software update already that will patch this bug. We highly recommend installing the update as soon as you receive the notification on your Macintosh computer!
