British police have arrested a 17-year-old boy believed to be linked to a cybercrime group responsible for devastating ransomware attacks on MGM Resorts and other companies last year.
Last September, hotel and casino giant MGM Resorts was hit by a cyber attack that forced guests to wait in line for hours to check into their hotels, residents had trouble getting into their rooms, ATMs stopped working, and the website, television service and phone lines were down.
At the time, MGM Resorts confirmed that the incident affected all of its Las Vegas resorts, including Aria, Bellagio, Luxor, MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay.
Some members of the public have documented their experiences at casinos that were taken offline by hackers on social media.
After announcing that it was “business as usual,” it took MGM Resorts a full 10 days to admit that hackers had accessed personal information about some guests, including their names, contact details, gender, dates of birth, driver’s licenses, passports, and even Social Security numbers.
It was later revealed that the hackers had used social engineering to attack MGM’s IT help desk, calling the company pretending to be employees who had been locked out of their accounts, and successfully tricked them into handing over login credentials before launching a ransomware attack.
MGM Resorts has announced that its share of the costs will exceed $100 million.
According to a statement from the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCUWM), the 17-year-old arrested last week in Walsall, England in a joint operation between West Midlands Police and the FBI is suspected to be a member of the cybercrime group Scattered Spider and was initially detained in police custody on suspicion of blackmail and Computer Misuse Act related offences.
“This arrest follows a complex investigation which has spanned internationally as far as the US and we have worked closely with the National Crime Agency and the FBI,” said Detective Inspector Hinesh Mehta, ROCUWM’s Cyber Crime Unit Manager. “These cyber groups have been successful in targeting high profile organisations using ransomware to extract large sums of money from a large number of victims across the world. We want to send a clear message that we will find you – it won’t work.”
MGM Resorts said it thanked police for their efforts in tracking down and arresting the gang members suspected of being behind the attack and refused to pay the ransom.
