A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of orchestrating a “sophisticated” cyber attack that cost MGM Resorts $100 million, Las Vegas police announced this week.
By all reports, the costly heist of Vegas Strip resorts was shockingly simple: Someone allegedly found an MGM Grand employee on LinkedIn and impersonated them, calling the company IT department to ask for a password reset. Once the reset was granted, the hacker reportedly had access to MGM’s internal systems “in 10 minutes.”
Between August and October 2023, multiple casinos were hit by “an organized cyber threat-actor group” going by the nickname “Scattered Spider,” Vegas police said. The hackers disabled hotel key cards and slot machines, prevented bookings and reservations from being accessed and locked employees out of their emails; in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, MGM said it lost $100 million as a result of the disruption.
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