After word hit the Internet poker forums that the Bodog Anonymous Table software update had been compromised by the website HHSmithy.com, the company was quick to respond; insuring their players that their accounts and money were safe at the site, and that they would work to fix the loophole that allowed the website to compromise their data and turn the anonymous tables into not-so-anonymous tables.

Well, just a day after the fact, Bodog has apparently fixed the glitch according to the following statement released by the site on Wednesday:

“The talents of the online poker community have been enormously helpful in testing the new software we have released. Obviously, any release has its teething problems and equally obviously we take any fault very seriously and we have released an update we are confident have addressed the most pressing issues.”

And here is why I really love Bodog: Bill Beatty’s summation of the entire fiasco on CalvinAyre.com was done in such a way as to make the most cynical satirist proud:

“Thanks to Kyle Boddy of Seattle Washington, a flaw in the Bodog Poker security was exposed. The exploit Boddy’s friend discovered and Boddy made public was similar to the exploit people discovered to crack Party Pokers anonymous tables, although unlike Party Poker, the players original screen names were never publicized.

“The Poker client would hold on to players account numbers, albeit with some minor security. 99.9% of people wouldn’t know the first steps to take to exploit the software but thankfully, Boddy is part of that 0.1% who looks for exploits and security flaws. The exploit was a simple fix that the Bodog Poker technicians were able to repair overnight.”

Beatty would go on to describe Kyle Boddy, and his site, in the following way: “Kyle Boddy, KyleB in the 2+2 forums is the Chief Marketing Officer behind the hand-reselling site HHSmitthy.com. If you are unfamiliar with Boddy’s site, they exploit poker operators’ data without permission. They package the data and resell it to poker players for a handsome profit.”

In the comments section of the article Calvin Ayre went so far as to recommend Bodog hire Boddy as a security advisor (which unlike most of the article was a serious suggestion).

We’ll have to wait and see if Boddy posts a new article with the “Challenge Accepted” image he uses on his site to showcase where he has found an exploit in someone’s security. While the poker industry likely hates what Boddy does, in an unregulated environment such as we have, Boddy and other hackers constantly trying to exploit a poker site’s software, and then going public with it, seem to be one of our only regulatory bodies!

Tags: Account Numbers, Bill Beatty, Boddy, Bodog Poker, Chief Marketing, Fiasco, First Steps, Glitch, Internet Poker, Loophole, Online Poker, Party Poker, Party Pokers, Poker Client, Satirist, Screen Names, Seattle Washington, Security Flaws, Software Update, Summation

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 8th, 2011 at 8:43 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.