PLO specialist high stakes pro Jens ‘Jeans89’ Kyllönen posted in the 2+2 forum that his hotel room had been broken into and his computer got hacked.
“URGENT Hotel rooms in arts ept barcelona broken into to plant trojans on laptops
For now both for me and ignat liviu(0human) the same thing happened roomkey doesnt work, go down to reception for a new key, come to the room to notice the laptop missing, go back down, in less than 10min go back up, and the laptop has reappeared. We are for sure not the only ones. Tell everyone you know at barcelona arts to not play on their laptops. Ill post a complete story about these sickening last days in a day or two. Just posting this quickly from my ipad to warn everyone,” Kyllönen wrote in his original post.
After a couple of comments, PokerStars Head of Poker Communications Lee Jones replied and confirmed the alarming news:
“Hi folks -
Unfortunately, the OP is accurate. We're only aware of two cases, but obviously there could be more. Our security manager is working with the Hotel Arts security people to find out who did this. In the meantime:
We're very sorry about this; everybody on our staff and at the Hotel Arts is taking the situation seriously. We have the Barcelona police involved too.
We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more. For now, please be hyper-vigilant and hyper-careful about your laptop.”
Unfortunately, it appears possible that Arts Hotel personnel are involved, helping the criminals enter the rooms or tipping them off which rooms are worth targeting. At least word has been spreading fast among poker players present at the venue and they try to warn each other, as seen below:
In case any of our players are playing the EPT Barcelona and are staying in the Arts Hotel, please be warned and follow the suggestions of Mr Jones.
“URGENT Hotel rooms in arts ept barcelona broken into to plant trojans on laptops
For now both for me and ignat liviu(0human) the same thing happened roomkey doesnt work, go down to reception for a new key, come to the room to notice the laptop missing, go back down, in less than 10min go back up, and the laptop has reappeared. We are for sure not the only ones. Tell everyone you know at barcelona arts to not play on their laptops. Ill post a complete story about these sickening last days in a day or two. Just posting this quickly from my ipad to warn everyone,” Kyllönen wrote in his original post.
After a couple of comments, PokerStars Head of Poker Communications Lee Jones replied and confirmed the alarming news:
“Hi folks -
Unfortunately, the OP is accurate. We're only aware of two cases, but obviously there could be more. Our security manager is working with the Hotel Arts security people to find out who did this. In the meantime:
- If you're staying at the Hotel Arts in Barcelona, please store your laptop in the room safe. If it won't fit in the room safe, buy a laptop cable lock (available at any computer store) and lock your laptop to something in the room. If you can't do that, take your laptop with you when you leave the room.
- Change the password on your laptop right now.
- We strongly encourage you to run virus/trojan detector software on your computer before using it for any online play.
- I know it's a hassle, but wiping the computer clean and reinstalling everything before you play online poker with it would not be a terrible idea.
We're very sorry about this; everybody on our staff and at the Hotel Arts is taking the situation seriously. We have the Barcelona police involved too.
We'll keep you updated as soon as we know more. For now, please be hyper-vigilant and hyper-careful about your laptop.”
Unfortunately, it appears possible that Arts Hotel personnel are involved, helping the criminals enter the rooms or tipping them off which rooms are worth targeting. At least word has been spreading fast among poker players present at the venue and they try to warn each other, as seen below:
In case any of our players are playing the EPT Barcelona and are staying in the Arts Hotel, please be warned and follow the suggestions of Mr Jones.
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