A teenager from Walsall, England, was recently arrested in connection with a ransomware attack that caused MGM Resorts in Las Vegas to shut down last year. The 17-year-old was taken into custody by the West Midlands Police Department on suspicion of blackmail and violating the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. He was later released on bail pending further investigation.
Authorities discovered evidence at the teenager’s residence, including several digital devices that will undergo forensic examination. The police department worked in collaboration with the UK’s National Crime Agency and the FBI to track down the suspect. While the teenager was believed to be part of a global cybercrime group, the specific group was not disclosed in the statement released by the police.
The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group claimed responsibility for the MGM Resorts cyber outage, stating that they were able to infiltrate the system with just a 10-minute phone call to a Help Desk employee using information obtained from LinkedIn. This attack resulted in a nine-day shutdown of all MGM Resorts casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, causing significant disruption to operations.
In addition to the attack on MGM Resorts, the ALPHV ransomware group also targeted the beauty brand Esteé Lauder in a similar incident. The group’s tactics highlight the vulnerability of companies to cyber attacks, particularly through social engineering methods like impersonating employees to gain access to sensitive information.
The aftermath of the attack revealed that other casinos, including Caesars, were also targeted by different ransomware groups. However, Caesars opted to pay the hackers millions of dollars to prevent the leakage of private company data. This decision underscores the difficult position that companies face when dealing with cyber extortion, weighing the cost of paying ransom against the potential consequences of data exposure.
The arrest of the teenage suspect in the MGM Resorts ransomware attack investigation sheds light on the growing threat of cybercrime, especially among young individuals with advanced technical skills. It serves as a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity measures and vigilance in protecting against malicious attacks that can have far-reaching implications for businesses and organizations.
