The Virgin Islands Lottery announced Friday it has suspended operations until further notice after a breach of its information technology infrastructure led to multiple failures within its system.
The collapse impacts the agency’s ability to generate tickets and conduct sales, forcing it to cancel Thursday’s drawing and any going forward until the matter is resolved, according to a notice issued Friday afternoon.
“We recognize this causes an inconvenience to our many patrons who earnestly play the lottery,” the agency said. “The V.I. Lottery’s IT team and third-party cybersecurity experts are working nonstop to remedy the situation and safely restore impacted systems and services.”
Reports will be released as updates become available, it said.
Hints of a problem first arose on Wednesday, when the V.I. Lottery issued a short press release saying its offices were closed territory-wide and the Thursday drawing would be rescheduled, though it did not offer an explanation as to why.
Reached by phone on Friday afternoon, Executive Director Raymond Williams said the V.I. Lottery is working with federal agencies to investigate the breach but declined to say exactly which entities are involved. The Source sought comment from the V.I. Police Department but did not hear back by press time.
The aim of the breach remains unclear, but Williams said no money was accessed in the attack.
“We don’t have a specific idea. I guess it’s similar to all the different problems you see all over the place,” said Williams. Breaches in recent years have included the Port Authority, Budget Office, and Water and Power Authority. Even the Central Intelligence Agency is not immune, reporting a hack in 2017 that was an internal job involving malware tools.
Williams said the breach involved “our data that was pretty much encrypted” and that the perpetrator would not have been able to access lottery information. “Our drawing is a stand-alone operation. It’s not connected to any type of system. There’s zero connectivity,” he said.
As for who might have carried out the attack, “We’re working with the federal government in looking at that specifically. We are definitely following all the different channels,” said Williams.
Meantime, “we’re slowly recovering as much information as we can,” said Williams, and it’s uncertain when the system will be back online.
“I don’t want to give the public a date. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get it back up by mid to end of the week. That’s my target,” said Williams.
Meanwhile, customers should hold onto their tickets for Thursday’s drawing.
“All we did was postpone the drawing. We’re going to honor it, for sure,” said Williams.
The V.I. Lottery, which held its first drawing on Jan. 25, 1938, at Emancipation Garden on St. Thomas and bills itself as the oldest continuous lottery in the United States, manages some 13 games and contributes millions of dollars each year to public schools, the Government Employees’ Retirement System bonus program, the Pharmaceutical Assistance Program, and local non-profits, among other entities, according to its website.
