If you use PlayNow in Sask., Manitoba or B.C., hackers may have your password

The company that runs a regulated online gambling website in Saskatchewan, B.C. and Manitoba says hackers have gained access to some of its customers’ passwords.

The B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC), which operates PlayNow.com, is encouraging customers to update their pass phrase after it detected a “suspicious” surge in traffic on July 24.

BCLC says the traffic turned out to be the result of “credential stuffing.” Since many people use the same email address and passwords across different online services, hackers were able to use leaked login information from other companies to access accounts on PlayNow.

“We do find this very concerning,” said Matt Lee, a spokesperson with BCLC.

“Obviously a very unfortunate incident and one that we continue to investigate,” Lee said.

He said the account breach impacted less than one per cent of its player base.

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“Of that one per cent, an even a smaller subset of players were actually financially impacted from that,” he said.

Lee said the company is working with impacted players to “rectify the situation.”

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner and RCMP have been notified, according to BCLC.

“There were a small number of Saskatchewan residents that were impacted by this particular incident, (but) the majority of the impacts were in British Columbia,” Lee said.

He said safety and security is still the company’s top priority.

“We're also taking this incident as an opportunity to re-evaluate the security controls we have in place on PlayNow.com, to potentially enhance that security even further,” He said.

PlayNow operates in B.C., Manitoba, and Saskatchewan in partnership with local gambling and lottery authorities.

-With files from CTV’s Meagan Gill and Rory MacLean