las vegas strip casinos get some very bad news

Plus, infosec armchair quarterbacks have limited visibility into each companies' security hygiene and strategy, their network architecture, even the relationship with and oversight from the board of directors. And it would be a mistake to assume that Caesars seemingly easier recovery was due to it having paid.' 'We don't know the scope of each, which systems were impacted, whether backup systems were impacted, etc., etc., etc. 'The MGM and Caesars incidents aren't necessarily comparable,' Callow said. Still, even if you're willing to ignore the murky ethical issues around funding criminal organizations, it's not that cut and dried.

If nobody paid, there'd be no more ransomware.'īut when looking at both casinos' outcomes, it appears as if the clear, less painful choice is to pay the ransom. 'Put simply, companies that pay keep ransomware alive and ensure other companies will be attacked. 'Paying a ransom is like cutting the cheese in a packed elevator: it makes other people suffer,' Emsisoft threat analyst Brett Callow told The Register. When looking at what ransomware payment end up funding (weapons development, oppressive regimes, more cybercrime and network intrusions), with all other things being equal, we'd assume most organizations would choose to not give in to extortion demands. 'Like cutting the cheese in a packed elevator' Ultimately, MGM suffered nearly a week of outages, operational disruptions, and angry customers, costing the corporation about $100 million in losses - and now its stolen data has reportedly been leaked. MGM also did not respond to The Register's requests for comment. MGM Resorts CEO Bill Hornbuckle has since said that's because his company had already started rebuilding its IT systems.

Scattered Spider, the crime gang believed to be responsible for both intrusions, reportedly bragged that all it took to break into MGM's networks was a 10-minute call with the help desk.īut unlike Caesars, MGM did not pay the ransom. Like Caesars, MGM was also an Okta customer that fell victim to phishing attempts targeting its IT service teams. That other company, of course, is MGM Resorts, which owns 31 hotel and casino locations globally. Meanwhile, as Caesars' breach became public, its neighboring resort and casino on the Vegas Strip entered its fourth day of inoperable IT systems and casinos following a 'cybersecurity issue.' What happens in Vegas…įrom the outside, at least, it appears that Caesars suffered minimal pain and business disruption primarily because it decided to pay the ransom. Caesars did not respond to The Register's inquiries for this or previous stories about the ransomware infection.

Las vegas strip casinos get some very bad news