According to Poker Table Ratings a severe security hole was found on US friendly online poker network Cereus Poker hosting UB Poker and Absolute Poker which can allow intruders to access accounts of poker players and giving them access in watching the hole cards that were dealt. Despite the fact that no confirmed hacking incidents were reported so far, the best way for someone to be 100% safe is to temporary stop accessing the offered games until an official notice from the affected company is to be released.
PTR stated that: “There is a severe indication of unauthorized access to the Cereus Network software which makes potential hacking attempts an easy task. The security hole enables the hackers to have knowledge of the hole cards the players hold in real time giving them the ultimate advantage on poker tables. The only action you should take in order to remain 100% safe from that kind of hacking attempts is to stop playing in the Cereus Network until the company upgrades the SSL usage.” And the summary of the announcement continues as “So far, we do not have indications of unauthorized access to the tables or to the players accounts however, after our tests on real accounts we conformed the problem on the security. The Cereus Network was immediately informed.”
After that, Mr Paul Leget, managing director of Tokwiro Enterprises, Mother Company of the Cereus responded the following to PTR: “We really value your email regarding the security hole on our network. We have watched your video and I honestly believe that you did a great job to the poker community by informing us and the players regarding this issue.
We would like to ensure you that this is an extremely important issue to us and we are working towards to the best solution as soon as possible. We would also like your contribution in resolving this matter if you provide that kind of services. Please publish this response to your website and inform the players than in order to suffer than kind of illegal attempt the hacker must have access to their local network.”
We just need to wait and see if the problem will be resolved as once again the Cereus Network suffered another security breach.
Tokwiro Enterprises is a private company solely owned by Joseph Tokwiro Norton and is headquartered in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. The company owns two online poker cardrooms, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet currently rebranded as UB Poker. As of November 2008, they jointly operate under the name CEREUS Poker. The CEREUS network is one of the world’s ten largest online poker cardrooms and is currently as US friendly network endorsed by superior names of the poker community including Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke.
You may watch the relevant video on You Tube here or read more about Cereus on Wikipedia.