In a twist of irony, a former cyber security website in New Brunswick is now being used to promote online casinos.
CyberNB was a website formerly used to promote New Brunswick’s cybersecurity sector. However, after the agency shut down last year, an anonymous group of users were able to secure the website’s domain name, cybernb.ca. It is now strictly used to promote Canadian online casinos.
Though no nefarious activity appears to be taking place with the repurposed site, some experts warn to be leery of the site.
CyberNB domain scooped up by online casino enthusiasts
CyberNB was a branch of Opportunities New Brunswick as an economic development agency.
When government funding was phased out last year, the agency shut down. Apparently maintaining the domain name for the site wasn’t on a high list of priorities going forward.
When the domain ownership expired it became available from the register MyID.ca.
The site’s owners are unknown. But they are self-described on the site as “a team of enthusiasts who specialize in cybersecurity in general and secure online casino gaming in particular.”
This new website now profiles several online casinos and casino games, including Wheel of Fortune slots, that are endorsed as reliable. However, no links to casinos are found on the site.
No illegal activity, but new CyberNB still ‘suspicious’
Ryk Edelstein is a data privacy expert and cybersecurity consultant in Montreal. He told CBC News that he was unable to find any illegal activity on the new website. But, he did note that the current state is ‘odd.’
“It is my suspicion that the domain had been acquired by someone involved in the online gaming community, and parked until such time that it is repurposed,” he said.
Edelstein believes the site could be turned into a functioning casino site in the future.
He feels online gaming operators elect to register hundreds of domains with different interfaces. The goal is to rebrand under different names to confuse customers into believing they’re playing on a different platform.
Should the CyberNB site be turned into an illegal gaming platform, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority could step in to shut it down.
The website was found to have a low trust score and was linked to other low-rated websites on the same server it is using.
Contact information for the website operators is not functional and their contact phone number uses a non-existent 555 area code.
The provincial government had no comment on when contacted by the CBC on the new CyberNB website ownership.
