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MGM Resorts Computers Back Up After 10 Days as Analysts Eye Effects of Casino Cyberattacks (apnews.com) 31

MGM Resorts brought to an end a 10-day computer shutdown prompted by efforts to shield from a cyberattack data including hotel reservations and credit card processing, the casino giant said Wednesday, as analysts and academics measured the effects of the event. From a report: "We are pleased that all of our hotels and casinos are operating normally," the Las Vegas-based company posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. It reported last week that the attack was detected Sept. 10. Rival casino owner Caesars Entertainment also disclosed last week to federal regulators that it was hit by a cyberattack Sept. 7. It said that its casino and online operations were not disrupted but it could not guarantee that personal information about tens of millions of customers, including driver's licenses and Social Security numbers of loyalty rewards members, had not been compromised. Caesars, based in Reno, is widely reported to have paid $15 million of a $30 million ransom sought by a group called Scattered Spider for a promise to secure the data.
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MGM Resorts Computers Back Up After 10 Days as Analysts Eye Effects of Casino Cyberattacks

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  • by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @01:08PM (#63866223)

    "MGM Resorts Computers Back Up After 10 Days as Analysts Eye Effects of Casino Cyberattacks"

    Simply putting an apostrophe after "Resorts" would make this trainwreck better.

    "MGM Resorts' Computers Back Up..."

      • Pedantic? Maybe. But this headline scans BAD.

        Is MGM resorting to computer back ups? are the backups from 10 days ago?
        Is resorts a misspelling of restores?
        "Eyeing effects" is an ongoing action, while "computers back up" is a point in time, or a current state. "As" is a stupid word.
        Resorts is a proper noun, but you can't tell that because everything is capitalized. Using the possessive places it properly in lanuage, and makes it a noun instead of a verb.

        By not having that apostrophe you prime the whole rest o

        • If they make that mistake with the context they probably don't spend time in Vegas and would think of the movie company.
  • Effects? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by DarkOx ( 621550 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @01:32PM (#63866281) Journal

    I can already tell you, they will have revenue miss just about exactly whatever 10 days in the late summer season is. They will have earned some income from operations even while the computers were down, and there will be a tiny a hangover period where a small number of customers shift to one of the other big Casio groups...

    Mostly the clients will come right back and it will be business as usual, as it has been with EVERY OTHER consumer card holder breach. The liability is on the issuing banks, consumers simple don't care about security writ paycard data, and other than a minor hassle mostly they don't need to care.

  • by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Thursday September 21, 2023 @01:57PM (#63866331) Homepage

    Caesars, based in Reno, is widely reported to have paid $15 million of a $30 million ransom sought by a group called Scattered Spider for a promise to secure the data.

    A bad idea as it only encourages the criminals to keep going and try to extract more $$ from others.

  • They may be up, but they aren't connected to the app yet.

  • by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @03:41PM (#63866629)

    This didn't hit gaming operations, it did expose customer data from guests who've stayed there and who had reservations and mucked up check-ins, amenities access, etc. They didn't lose any money, just some prestige and maybe a few customers. I'll bet those affected were compensated accordingly with free stuff, or another stay for free.

    The whole business of Las Vegas is based around a quick getaway, having some fun, seeing a show, and gambling. A ton of that business is from two nights or fewer guests.

  • It's sad (Score:4, Insightful)

    by WaffleMonster ( 969671 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @04:37PM (#63866769)

    That paying ransoms is even legal.

  • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @04:55PM (#63866811)
    So, this group of known criminals stole a computer file, infinitely copy-able. Asnd the casinos just payed 30 million to hear them say this:

    “oh, yeah we totally deleted all the copies of that BWWWAAAAAHAhahahaha sorry we couldn’t way that with a straight face. We’ll be soaking you for another 30 million each month till you balk and then we’ll sell the data on the dark web. Suckah.”

    I seriously thought the casino mafiosos er I mean executives were smarter than that.
    • by Slayer ( 6656 )

      I am already amazed, that some crooks had the guts to attack a Vegas casino chain. What's next on the list? Colombian drug cartels? Iran's revolutionary guards? Chinese triads? Holy shit! And these crooks showed even more guts by actually taking the assets they were handed by MGM!

      I guess in a few weeks their mighty guts will be on public display somewhere ...

    • by mjwx ( 966435 )

      So, this group of known criminals stole a computer file, infinitely copy-able. Asnd the casinos just payed 30 million to hear them say this:

      “oh, yeah we totally deleted all the copies of that BWWWAAAAAHAhahahaha sorry we couldn’t way that with a straight face. We’ll be soaking you for another 30 million each month till you balk and then we’ll sell the data on the dark web. Suckah.”

      I seriously thought the casino mafiosos er I mean executives were smarter than that.

      A Mafioso would be smarter, a CEO, not so much.

      I've known a few people who worked for decades in Vegas, they all told me it was better when the mob ran it.

  • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Thursday September 21, 2023 @04:59PM (#63866817)

    Especially for elementary things like disaster recovery. Somebody was greedy and cheap.

    Also, it needs to be made criminal to pay these attackers. Anybody that pays just finances the problem getting worse.

  • Vegas was going to be the prime target of ransom attacks. A leisure industry, so minimal public sympathy, urgency, or fear. But a lot of money concentrated in a narrow industry that would converge on common strategies and tech solutions. Also geographically isolated, so reduced spillover effects. Requests for help will sound like parasites bitching about being robbed, which it basically is, so the response will be less than motivated.

    Which is not to say there should not be a response. If the culprit
  • Caesars, based in Reno, is widely reported to have paid $15 million of a $30 million ransom sought by a group called Scattered Spider for a promise to secure the data.

    Seriously paying them is still legal? No wonder these attacks are increasing. fucking useless politicians, the one area in cyber security they could actually make a positive difference they fumble.

  • "We have removed the malware that has been fleecing us, and we are now back to our usual business of fleecing you, the consumer. Thank you for your patience."
  • They actually have posted job openings twitter(x) for a RHCE to rebuild the whole slot infrastructure from the ground up: $110/hr must be willing to work 10hour + days for at least a week to 2 weeks straight.
  • Online establishments are especially susceptible. They are easier to hack. I myself recently received a bonus, I found a link [icasinoreviews.info] for this. It’s better to use something reliable and lose there. How to find an unreliable resource and win there.

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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