CGA to launch temporary licensing portal after data breach

The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) is getting a stopgap licensing portal ready so it can resume normal work after a cyberattack exposed sensitive data held in its online licensing system. The regulator announced the launch on Monday, the same day the interim platform went live, and it will handle licence applications and regulatory matters until a permanent replacement is ready.

According to the CGA, it learned on 17 September that a German digital security researcher had broken into the licensing portal in December 2025 and subsequently released confidential material tied to online gambling licensees. The regulator said the illegal access involved a portal and database run by an outside company. It added that it notified authorities in Curaçao, Germany and the Netherlands, engaged specialist firms to scrub leaked information from the internet and ordered an independent technical investigation. The CGA said it is also weighing civil legal action.

This step follows the regulator's decision, taken weeks earlier, to close its old portal for good instead of restoring it after the breach, and to cut ties with the outside provider that ran it. The CGA said the temporary system was checked beforehand, with security testing, assessments of potential vulnerabilities and verification that it works correctly for operators and regulatory staff alike. Besides licence applications, the authority says the temporary platform should also carry the licence register and the digital seal system; the digital seal is meant to demonstrate that a website holds a valid CGA licence.

The regulator emphasised that shutting the original platform has no effect on the validity of licences already granted. "Closing the previous portal does not invalidate existing licences," it said, and it noted that licensees are still required to fulfil their duties throughout the transition.

The CGA said the original portal formed part of Curaçao's gambling reform programme, which started with the LOK gambling law that took effect in December 2024, and that outside specialists ran it given the technical complexity involved. Since the reform began, the regulator said it has grown its in-house team with staff working on licensing, supervision and enforcement. Its longer-term aim is to rely less on external advisers and in time run its own portal itself, and it confirmed that development of a new system it intends to build and manage internally is already in progress.