American casino giant Caesars Entertainment has allegedly been forced to pay millions of dollars in a hacking incident. As first reported by Bloomberg, the company had been hit by hackers prior to the cyberattack on MGM Resorts International, another major gambling and hospitality company, hinting at a possible link between the attacks.
Sources told Bloomberg that the hackers broke through Caesars’ defenses and threatened to release confidential data. The attack allegedly began on August 27 and was initiated by a group known as Scattered Spider or UNC 3944. The group is comprised of what experts believe to be primarily tech-savvy young people across the United States and the United Kingdom, a cybercrime expert pointed out.
The hackers first targeted an outside IT vendor and eventually secured access to Caesars’ own network, the reports claim. Boasting a reputation for using social engineering to target large companies, the Scattered Spider group took hold of critically important Caesars data.
The criminals allegedly required payment in the tens of millions of dollars that the casino company had no choice but to pay.
While Caesars Entertainment didn’t confirm the news officially, the report immediately affected its share prices. Following the unfortunate news, Caesars stock took a 2.7% dip to $52.35 per share.
Caesars Isn’t the Only Victim of Cyberattacks
As mentioned, the attack on Caesars Entertainment came right before a devastating cybersecurity issue with MGM Resorts. Beginning on September 10, the cybersecurity crisis affected the casino giant’s business in multiple states, prompting the shutdown of multiple company computers across the United States.
MGM Resorts International had to take its official website down for a while and instead provided a temporary phone connection for customers who wished to reach the reservation system and individual properties.
MGM Resorts was sparing with the information it released to the public. Despite that, the casino juggernaut reassured customers that it is working diligently to resolve the issue and protect its data integrity.
In the meantime, another cybercriminal group attacked Stake.com, one of the biggest online gambling operators in the world. While different in nature, the attack caused the online attack to lose tens of millions of dollars. Estimations put the losses at $41 million in cybercurrencies.
The FBI later identified the attackers as the Lazarus Group, a notorious hacker group with ties to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea/North Korea. The bureau urged private sector companies to review the advisory published on TraderTraitor in order to protect their business from similar incidents.
Fiona Simmons
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