Yesterday Boledo lovers from all across the country were in a crisis when the Boledo machines froze up and they couldn't buy their numbers for the Sunday Lottery Draw.
Turns out that the main computer server at Brad's was hacked and, according to a release, quote, "the attack caused severe disruption to the lottery/jackpot sellers and buyers whereby ticket sales were drastically interrupted and unavailable."
But the draw doesn't rely on computers - that's just balls in a barrel - and that went ahead as usual. That left customers frustrated and irate - especially those who had the winning jackpot number of 5470, or the ending number of 70 - but couldn't get to buy it. Today Public Relations officer Karil Wallace told us the hack was not something they could have predicted.
Karil Wallace, Public Relations Officer
"The people who deals with selling at the various stations could not have printed a receipt. This was due to some sort of malicious act on our systems where our print script, the bottom part of our receipts could not have populated, if you may call it that. And the receipt could not have been printed because then it needs the print script. So what that did it affected our whole network and we had to resort to centralizing the sales where our test machines are - we have machines that are used for test in various districts and also in Belize City. In Belize City we have on our Vernon Street Branch and here at #2 Farmer's Market. We had to use those because those were not online, so those were not corrupted. So only those 2 locations could have printed the tickets yesterday."
"Definitely we had a backlash. You know people are very passionate when it comes to boledo and Sunday lottery and even with the other games: Pick 3 and Fantasy 5 that our sister companies draw. They are very passionate. We had irate customers wanting to purchase their numbers and didn't get a chance to do so and we apologized for that, but it was something totally beyond our control - something that we could not have dealt with before that 10am time when the draw is done."
"We are trying our very best to see how it may have happened and where that may have initiated from, but that is not first and foremost. First and foremost was to get out network back up and to ensure that tickets can be sold for tonight. It was restored throughout the course of yesterday, but because of the timeframe from when we realize that this has happened a little after 8 o' clock and the draw conducts at 10, that window was very small."
"But for security purposes we are upgrading our systems, installing different programs and different firewalls and so on and building more sites, so that in the event a site may go down due to malicious act, we can relocate."
"It's restored and people can purchase their nightly boledo, so if they didn't get a chance to purchase yesterday for Sunday lottery, unu go buy unu ticket for tonight."
As Wallace said the Boledo network is restored so customers can buy Boledo as usual tonight. Wallace says that a network team is working to investigate the source of the hack.
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