The Slots Fall Silent
The MGM company’s casinos and hotels have experienced severe IT web outage and disruption, with financial impacts of the outage expected to be significant. MGM Resorts International reported a "cyber security issue" on 11th September, which has affected its hospitality, gaming and entertainment properties across the US and MGM.
This resulted in a shut down a number of its computer systems including its website in response to a “cybersecurity issue,” the company said in a social media post
The initial shutdown impacted nearly every aspect of the casino operator’s business. Everything from slot machines, room keys, ATMs and reservations have been affected.
Employees are currently unable to access their company emails and almost a week later it remains unclear when systems will be back online.
According to reports, the same hackers who breached MGM have also attacked another leading casino operator, Caesars Entertainment, breaking into their systems as well as those of three other non-gaming companies. David Bradbury, chief security officer of the identity management company Okta, told reporters that five of the company's clients, including MGM and Caesars, had fallen victim to hacking groups known as ALPHV and Scattered Spider since August.
Multiple MGM sites have been affected including the MGM Grand Detroit, MGM Northfield Park in Ohio, Empire City Casino in NYC, Beau Rivage in Mississippi, Borgata in Atlantic City and MGM Springfield in Massachusetts. Reservation systems, booking systems, online reservations, and in-casino services, like ATMs, slot machines, and credit card machines, hotel electronic key card systems, and the casino floors were all apparently impacted by the outage.
ALPHV Claim Responsibility
In an unprecedented development, ransomware group ALPHV has publicly claimed responsibility for the MGM Resorts attack, publishing a statement on their Dark Web website. ALPHV warned MGM of further attacks if it didn't strike a deal. It's unclear how much ransom ALPHV has demanded.
Now, the cybersecurity company Check Point have produced a blog detailing up to date stats on the group including the geographical spread of their victims and the sectors they target.
Threat intelligence group manager at Check Point Research Sergey Shykevich observed: “This incident is yet more proof of the growing trend of ransomware attackers focusing on data extortion and targeting of non-windows operating systems. The model of ransomware as a service (RaaS) continues to be very successful, combining strong technological infrastructure for the attacks, with savvy and sophisticated affiliates that find the way to penetrate major corporations."
The resort owner issued a further statement, saying it recently identified an issue "affecting some of the company's systems.. Promptly after detecting the issue, we quickly began an investigation with assistance from leading external cyber security experts... Our investigation is ongoing, and we are working diligently to determine the nature and scope of the matter."
Casino industry site Vital Vegas said the attack was "devastating" because "MGM Resorts has about 48,000 rooms on The Strip."
According to Okta, a different hacking gang alternately known as known as UNC3944 or Scattered Spider appears to have worked with ALPHV on the latest hacks "Think of them more as business associates or affiliates," David Bradbury said. Mandiant has described UNC3944, as one of the most disruptive hacking groups in the United States
Guests at some other Las Vegas locations, which include Aria, Bellagio, Luxor and Mandalay Bay took to social media to report continued disruptions affecting ATM and credit card machines, digital room keys, slot machines, and other electronics systems.
CNBC: CheckPoint: MGMResorts: NBC: Regsiter: ITPro: Mirror: Bleeping Computer:
Image: Cottonboro Studio
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