Sick. Noob virus question: is it possible to see just WHERE the malware is sending data to? Like...an IP address for the recipient / observer or whatever?

This made it to mainstream tech news in NYC:

http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/10/5...arking-malware

They never found the perpetrators?

The comments from that article were funny. One guy asks how installing malware helps cheat the tournament going on downstairs at the hotel, and another guy explains that they play online as well as in "meatspace".

this!

After analyzing Jens's laptop, we started looking for other victims. It turned out that yet another professional player, Henri Jaakkola, who stayed in the same room as Jens at the EPT Barcelona event, had the exact same trojan installed in his laptop.

i fackkken told ya. was a clear case since beginning. facken ept.

Java (the programmation langage) and Java (platform and deployment toolkit) are two different things
turning off Java won't protect you AT ALL from that kind of exploit

Second this question.

I know I've had intrusion attempts that got blocked, and I could see the IP address (always in China). My uneducated guess is that a well-executed malware would conceal such tracks but I'm also a relative noob when it comes to virus/spyware/malware.

And agree with DD/KW, I await Stars' response. I don't necessarily think they're involved directly in this, but as I understand it, they put all of the players up in this hotel. Definitely created a target-rich environment, even if unintentionally so.

Edit: also, Rich Ryan at PokerNews has reported the story here:
http://www.pokernews.com/news/2013/1...king-17007.htm

Note: it's mostly a Cliff's of the F-Secure blog post, but at least it will hit a more general poker audience.

Don't for 1 second think this is just Barcelona, or just EPT's, tip of the iceberg..

Well, certainly not just Barcelona, given the similar stories from Scott Seiver (Berlin) and Jason Koon (Deauville). Jungleman also referenced something earlier in this thread but could not give details. So far they have all been EPT stops, though.

Blaming Stars for creating a target-rich environment by putting everyone up in the same hotel is ridiculous. Putting everyone in the same hotel is super standard for companies that put people up for a conference or other event.

I definitely don't blame them, which is why said outright that the hotel becoming such an environment was unintentional on Stars' part. Apologies if you took that any other way; I thought I made that clear. Apparently I did not.

However, I do not find that it would be at all inappropriate for Stars to make some sort of statement regarding these incidents. They chose the hotel. From what we can gather, the hotel – or staff members of it – was involved in allowing this to happen. I don't blame Stars for the hotel's actions but I'd like to see them sever their business relationship with the chain.

Of course, when it comes down to it, the players will hopefully assume their end of the responsibility by exercising heightened caution from here on out. After all, they are the targets of the target-rich environment. Leaving unsecured computers in hotel rooms makes them all the more prone.

And yes, I understand the practice of companites putting groups up in a single hotel. I work for an NCAA-member institution. We often do that for visiting teams when we host a tournament, and our teams are frequently steered toward certain lodging (or outright assigned to them during NCAA championship events). If we put up a bunch of teams in a hotel, and those guests were victimized by that hotel's shady activities, we wouldn't necessarily feel we were at fault, but we would certainly take every measure to communicate that this shall not be allowed to happen on our watch in the future.

Stars is not at fault for the incident. However, now that they are aware; if Stars fails to provide adequate security on future events or at the very least notify future participants of the possibility, I do believe they are at fault.

So far, Stars has said nothing to alert possible affected players and this really is a huge concern.

Ok so clearly the hotel manager was in on it (I haven't read the last few pages so not sure if this was confirmed)

But still, seems pretty obvious a hotel employee(s) were in on it.

So in future don't book any poker stars hotel. And to e honest I don't see why any one takes their poker laptop either. So maybe even have two laptops one for casual one for poker?

The thing with Stars that smarts with me is they were pretty quick to comment in this very thread through Lee Jones their Official Spokes Person(?)- perhaps before getting the Corporate line and then ...................silence.............. Nothing.

Obv the High Ups decided to not comment and one wonders with their NJ License Application hanging in the Balance if there's a link. Jeans himself then went suspiciously very quiet, came back said there was nothing he could say while under investigation and now the investigators release this. Stinks of cover up.

I guess their thoughtful silence makes me worry why that was their choice and how bad it actually is - probably less so than the imagination thinks which is why it is always better to let it out.......unless..........it's Daniel.

Such an interesting story.

Jeans' follow-up thread:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...ident-1397551/

Regardless of what you think of Stars' culpability in this, the general sense in the new thread is that they dropped the ball in the way this case was handled.

Ok, i've reached the line, Stars saying nothing and doing nothing is an absolute joke, they do have responsibility to help here, and they should be doing this in the open, as events are continuing as if nothing has happened, are they expecting this to just go away?

Firstly I worked as a dealer for 7 years, on the biggest events in the UK, Ireland and Europe, I don't anymore as I spoke out about the situations that not only could but clearly have had an impact (and this goes far beyond Jeans situation, although in terms of actual losses or potential losses this ranks higher).

Events are manned mainly by great staff, hardworking and dedicated, although should you try and constructively criticize anything, and you're not part of the clique, well it's out the door for you. I'll say this much for now, for a company that is clearly making so much money it's close to ridiculous they DO NOT care about staff, security and there are so many WTF situations this would go on for pages if I started to try and cover them.

It's not just stars, it's poker in general, regulation can't come soon enough, and stars being shown two fingers in the USA is a good thing i'm sure.

I've been involved with poker as a player, dealer, TD and just can't let this thread fade away, poker needs to put stars in their place, and soon, and people with information about stars and other sites/events/casino's need to speak up now, whilst regulation is spreading, the fairness and future of the game could depend on it, and whilst I can and will speak openly on my knowledge, I wasn't in the higher circles of decision makers and fear for what really goes on their and how it will damage poker in the long run.

Stars has this great image in the poker community and they work hard on keeping it as long as it costs them relatively little, but as soon as you notify them of a real problem where they would have to put in serious work to solve it they will quickly tell you to f*** off.

Yup, they are almost a monopoly and well aware it.

Poker Listings today recognised how bad this story was for Poker - making it No3 in Top 20 worst things to happen in 2013 for Poker.

Why didnt he call security when he was outside his door?

After being suspicious ... He should have stayed outside the door and made sure no one exited.

I would piss on their carpet, but seriously this is disturbing

Stars is the best site by far they will send you funny emails sometimes and have the pokerstars monkey need i say more? who cares if they dont help if you get robbed?

easy to solve that problem by getting a password protects your account then you have 50 billion on stars and feel safe .