MGM Resorts Operations Resume 10 Days After Cyberattack

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MGM Resorts says so resumed all operations on Wednesday, a full 10 days later hackers took control of its system. The cyberattack caused mayhem at several of its locations across the country, affecting hotel reservations and credit card processing, while customers complained of losing access to their hotel rooms when their key cards did not work more.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, MGM Resorts wrote: “We are happy that all of our hotels and casinos are operating normally. He adds, “Our great employees are ready to help customers with intermittent issues. »

The hotel and the casino as well reported on X that its resort services, restaurants, entertainment, pools and spas are operating normally. Yet they did not disclose information about the extent of the data breach, including the immediate costs it incurred as it struggled to regain control of its systems.

The ransomware group, ALPHV allegedly carried out the cyberattack September 11 using common social networks engineering tactics to take control of MGM’s computer systems. “All the ALPHV ransomware group did to compromise MGM Resorts was hop on LinkedIn, find an employee, then call the help desk,” the ransomware tracker said. vx-underground wrote on Twitter job last week. “A company valued at $33,900,000,000 was defeated by a 10-minute conversation,” he adds.

The attack on MGM’s systems affected hotels and casinos in seven states besides Las Vegas, including Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York and Ohio.

Gregory Moody, professor and director of the cybersecurity program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Associated Press he predicted that MGM Resorts would lose up to $8 million per day because of the computer shutdown, bringing the overall loss to about $80 million.

The shutdown came just a week after MGM rival Caesars Entertainment suffered a similar cyberattack from the Scattered Spider ransomware group on September 7, and reportedly paid the hackers $15 million of the $30 million ransom dollars demanded.

“At this point, all casinos should adopt the highest possible defensive posture and take active steps to verify the integrity of their systems and environment, and review – or even activate – their incident response processes,” Christopher Budd, director of threats. research by cybersecurity firm Sophos X-Ops told the AP. “There have been attacks on several casinos, and it’s possible we’ll see more.”

Cyberattacks at casinos have increased in recent years, with hacking group Lazarus stealing $41 million in virtual currency from Stake.com, an online casino and betting platform, earlier this month. In 2017, hackers accessed information from a North American casino using an aquarium sensorand in 2020 MGM Resorts was attacked, grossly exposing 10.6 million customer data and information.

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