A teenager was arrested after he allegedly hacked into several casinos in Las Vegas, causing a loss of $100 million.
“Between August 2023 and October 2023, multiple Las Vegas casino properties became the targets of sophisticated network intrusions,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said in a press release on September 19.
The incidents “were attributed to an organized cyber threat-actor group known by several names to include, ‘Scattered Spider,’ ‘Octo Tempest,’ ‘UNC3944,’ and/or ‘0ktapus,’” according to the release.
After the FBI’s Las Vegas Cyber Task Force led an investigation into the matter, it was discovered that “a teenage male” was “a suspect in the case.” The teenager eventually “surrendered himself” to authorities on September 17 before he was booked on multiple charges.
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The teen was charged with three counts of “Obtaining and Using Personal Identifying Information of Another Person to Harm or Impersonate Person;” one count of “Extortion;” one count of “Conspiracy to Commit Extortion” and one count of “Unlawful Acts Regarding Computers,” per the release.
“The Clark County District Attorney’s Office is seeking to transfer the juvenile to the criminal division, where he would face these charges as an adult,” the police said in the release.
Some of the targeted properties included Caesars and MGM Resorts, according to KTLA and SFGATE, and it was reported that there were $100 million in losses as a result of the cyberattacks.
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The hacker allegedly granted access to MGM Grand by pretending to be an employee he found on LinkedIn. SFGATE reported he asked the company’s IT department to reset his password, which allowed him to access the company’s data. Forbes also reported that the teenager was allegedly able to access internal systems in MGM “in 10 minutes” after he was granted access to reset the password.
Hotel key cards and slot machines being disabled amid the cyberattack, as well as bookings being blocked and employees being locked out of their emails, per SFGATE.
MGM previously stated in a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing submitted on October 5, 2023, that it had lost around $100 million during the “the cyber security issue in September.”
According to SFGATE, Caesars also reported a similar cyber attack in a SEC filing around the same time. Their report stated that they took “steps to ensure that the stolen data is deleted by the unauthorized actor, although we cannot guarantee this result.”
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