DraftKings Confirms $300,000 Of Customers’ Funds Taken In Hack

Written By Stephanie Wood on November 29, 2022

In a public statement issued last Monday, DraftKings Sportsbook acknowledged that “some customers were experiencing irregular activity with their accounts.” Around $300,000 of customer funds were impacted by hacking.

The company further confirmed that there was no evidence of the betting platform’s systems being breached. Paul Liberman, DraftKings’ co-founder and president for global technology and product said, “We currently believe that the login information of these customers was compromised on other websites and then used to access their DraftKings account.”

Customers who were impacted by the hacking will “be made whole” by DraftKings.

A report by The Action Network detailed the experience of several customers, who all reported noticing unexpected withdrawals of several hundred dollars from their accounts. When they attempted to login, they were unable to do so. Their passwords and phone numbers for two-factor authentication had been changed.

One user replied to DraftKings tweeted statement that it was irresponsible of the company to allow account changes without extra confirmation.

Distrust Of Online Financial Transactions

In response to the hacking, DraftKings shares fell 5% on Monday. However, its stock value has recovered and is nearly at the value of the previous Friday’s close.

Despite this, there’s an increased concern of customers doing financial transactions with a variety of platforms. FanDuel told CNBC that it has seen an increase in hacking attempts on its platforms. Those attempts have been unsuccessful so far, FanDuel said.

“We remind our customers about the importance of good cybersecurity hygiene,” FanDuel said in a statement. “Please stay vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity if [you suspect your] account has been compromised.”

This comes on shortly after the collapse of FTX, a fledgling cryptocurrency exchange. The company’s valuation plunged from $32 billion to bankruptcy in a matter of days, and contributed to a cryptocurrency market shock that caused a total of a trillion dollar loss.

Also read: Avoid This Massachusetts Sports Betting Mistake

Keeping Betting Accounts Secure

The attack on DraftKings’ users is considered a credential stuffing attack. Hackers who have gotten login information from other breaches will use that information across many platforms and sometimes find success logging in.

Security experts provided a few tips to keep accounts safer. The first way is to not reuse passwords. Because it’s hard to remember so many passwords, experts recommend using a password manager. Password manager programs allow users to generate and save a strong, unique password for every account.

The second way is to set up multi-factor or two-factor authentication. This requires an additional step after entering the correct password and username, like a text or email with a unique code. This can help to prevent hackers from logging in even with the correct credentials.