Authorities in the UK on Friday announced the arrest of a 17-year-old suspected of being involved in cyberattacks against multiple organizations, including MGM Resorts.
The teenager was arrested in Walsall as part of a global investigation into a large-scale cybercrime group known for hacking large organizations worldwide and deploying ransomware, the West Midlands Police announced, specifically naming MGM as one of the victims.
“The suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of Blackmail and Computer Misuse Act offenses and has been released on bail while we continue with our enquiries. We also recovered evidence at the address including a number of digital devices which will undergo forensic examination,” the authorities said.
The attack on MGM occurred on September 10, 2023, and resulted in the hospitality and entertainment giant taking many of its systems offline, which impacted its casinos, website, email systems, and systems used for bookings, reservations, and digital hotel room keys.
The company managed to restore its systems roughly ten days after the attack and confirmed several weeks later that the costs associated with the incident exceeded $110 million.
Shortly after the attack came to light, a subgroup of the AlphV/BlackCat ransomware group claimed responsibility for hacking MGM, boasting about how easy social engineering granted them access to the giant’s systems.
Several days after the attack on MGM, Caesars Entertainment disclosed in a regulatory filing that it fell victim to a ransomware attack on September 7. The casino owner reportedly made a $15 million ransom payment to the Scattered Spider cybercrime group.
AlphV/BlackCat was one of the ransomware families that Scattered Spider (also known as Muddled Libra, Øktapus, Scatter Swine, Starfraud, and UNC3944) was known to deploy in attacks along with remote access tools and information stealers such as Raccoon and Vidar.
The cybergang reportedly switched to RansomHub and Qilin ransomware after BlackCat pulled an exit scam earlier this year, reportedly bagging a $22 million ransom from the Change Healthcare hack and leaving the threat landscape.
The new arrest comes roughly one month after a British man was arrested in Palma de Mallorca for his alleged leadership role in the Scattered Spider gang. Another alleged member of the group, a 19-year-old from Florida, was arrested in January.
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