William Bolton Editor


Comment


October 2023


Shortly before going to print, Caesars Entertainment confirmed that just days before MGM Resorts’ computer systems were hacked it paid out a ransom of $15m to a cybercrime outfit that had managed to compromise its systems. The criminal group responsible demanded a $30m ransom on September 7, with Caesars eventually settling on paying about half. Caesars says it has taken steps to ensure the stolen data is deleted by the unauthorised actor, although they “cannot guarantee this result.” Reassuring for all whose socal security and drivers licence numbers were stolen, I’m sure.


A group called Scattered Spider has claimed responsibility for the two attacks with native English speakers believed to be operating under the umbrella of a Russia- based entity called ALPHV or BlackCat. The group, who use SMS text phishing and phone calls to Help Desks to try to reset password resets or be sent bypass codes, are one of the most disruptive hacking outfits in the United States according to Google's Mandiant Intelligence. The hackers said MGM disconnected each and every one of their Okta Sync servers after learning they had been lurking on their Okta Agent servers. The upshot? The company’s website went down along with


MGM SUFFERED A BREACH AS RECENTLY AS 2019 WHEN OVER 10.6 MILLION HOTEL CUSTOMERS HAD THEIR DATA STOLEN


reports of dozens of slot machines being offline at Aria on the Las Vegas Strip, Borgata in Atlantic City and MGM Northfield in Ohio. At MGM Grand Detroit guests reported that credit card machines and digital keys for hotel rooms weren’t working, giving you pause for thought the next time your keycard doesn’t work.


Less discussed is that MGM suffered a breach as recently as 2019 when over 10.6 million hotel customers had their data stolen and published online by hackers. BlackCat has said it will carry out ‘additional attacks’ on MGM’s systems and share the information online if it doesn’t comply with the ransom.


Malevolence aside, at least these criminal groups understand the value of our data. When will those we entrust with our data do the same?


EDITORIAL ADVERTISING G3 Editor


William Bolton


william@gamingpublishing.com +44 (0)7714690817


G3Newswire Editor Phil Martin


phil@gamingpublishing.co.uk +44 (0)7801 967714


Deputy Editor Karen Southall


karensouthall@gmail.com


Managing Director Lewis Pek


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International Reporter James Marrison


PRODUCTION


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Commercial Administrator Jennifer Pek


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Contributors Leo Bateman, John Connelly, Tomas Schmalzer, Mike McKiski, Alexandar Popović, Tracy Cohen, Goran Sovilj, Edward Price, Craig Stapleton, Hennadiy Novikov, Danielle Calafato, Nik Robinson, Magnus Wallentin, Mortiz Blume, Michael Bauer, Lior Cohen, Elżbieta Krauze, Sargis Pogosyan.


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