Turns out the Cereus network only XOR’s networks communication, which isn’t encryption at all as far as I can tell.
Considering all the old scandals (superuser, potripper etc), which even seem to involve the site’s owner, this is making me reconsider their site. I’d not been too bothered before (after all, superusers are hardly going to target cheeseburger steaks), but the fact that they don’t even use standard SSL is a sign of utter incompetence.
I also wonder how industry regulators missed this – do they audit code at all or is it a simple ‘[x] Secure’ checkbox and they just trust the site. If it’s along those lines then all the other sites could easily have undiscovered vulnerabilities…
Update: Emptied my account at UB and removed all my Cereus rakeback offers. Not sure whether to put the $$$ on Pokerstars or Full Tilt yet – my FT account is badly depleted, but PS gets loads more action. Also it’s not as if Rakeback really makes a big difference with husngs (at least compared to my near break-even cash abilities 
)
There arn’t any industry regulations!!! Have a look at into who audit the softwares of the poker sites it’s funny. They’re all regulated in Malta or places like that and there really isn’t any regulation at all. Look into who regulates Pokerstars…
The Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission regulates most forms of gambling in the Isle of Man, which includes both land based and online operations. As a body, it is statutorily charged to ensure that gambling is conducted honestly and fairly, remains free from criminal influence and exploitation and does not cause harm to the public interest, individuals and families. However for the avoidance of doubt, please note that the player protection principles of the Commission do not extend to third party payment providers engaged by licence holders.
Funds Protected
On the Isle of Man we make sure that all licensee’s have a system in place which fully protects all player funds. This means that any deposits or winnings you have with an island regulated gaming firm are secure and can be enforced by law.
Independent Testing
All operators must have the games they offer independently tested by an external testing facility, approved by the Gambling Supervision Commission, to ensure their mechanisms are fully random and therefore fair.
Ongoing Reviews
The Commissions’ functions in respect of the interests of the player also include reviewing the ongoing marketing and advertising activities of licensees, and continually monitoring all policies in respect of player protection and under-age gambling.
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All they check is randomness and this is done by companies like pricewaterhousecoopers, the issues are that they are not a casino so all the Isle of Man gambling supervision are looking for is randomness in the RNG.
wow, that’s lame.
They probably just do ctrl-f, ‘srand’ and if it finds something then that’s job done…
how do they check randomness? companies like pwc don’t do the indepth analysis, they use their own standard forms with checkboxes. where’s my my big book..
You can’t get true randomness programmatic-ally anyway. You need a hardware randomizer.
Which is as easy as using mouse cursor positions. There’s no great mystery to RNGs.
What I want to know if how they’ve programmed the KITN card to always land on the river?
you can get much better randomness “programmatically” than you can get by shuffling real cards. mouse cursor position is not random at all. idk if it’s rigged or not but i trust real software rngs much more than casinos