Las Vegas Faces Cyberattacks
In the bustling city of Las Vegas, two of its casinos, the Four Queens Resort and Casino and Binion's Gambling Hall, fell prey to a cyber assault just last week. The affected equipment includes their slot machines, which had a breakdown lasting six days. Consequently, these machines could no longer print out vouchers for customers, resulting in a cease of payouts.
Due to the computer system malfunction, guests were compelled to switch to cash transactions even within the hotel premises. Pictures and videos from the venue depicted vacant corridors and defective slot machines featuring "Out of Order" signs. Limited information was initially released by the management, and it took a couple of days before signs were posted at the entrance warning guests about the situation. TLC Casino Enterprises, the operating company, has yet to release an official statement about the turmoil.
The operations resumed on Monday, but the company's websites, which were also breached, are still turned off. The Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) is now looking into the case with law enforcement cooperation. While it's not clear whether it's a "ransomware attack" yet, the authorities are on the case.
Cyber attacks on the gambling capital of the United States, Las Vegas, are not unheard of. A significant event happened in November 2018 when a renowned hotel chain called Marriott became a target. MGM, a giant gambling company, has recently confessed to a similar incident in the summer of 2019, but they tried to downplay it initially.
A spokesperson of MGM stated, "Last summer, we discovered unauthorized access to a cloud server that contained a limited amount of information for certain former MGM Resorts guests. We are confident that no financial, payment card, or password information was involved in this matter." However, later in February, it surfaced that the data at hand contained personal information of nearly 10.6 million guests of MGM Grand, including celebrities like Justin Bieber and Jack Dorsey. People's names, home addresses, and even passport numbers were sold on a hacker forum.
Despite the severe consequences, MGM persists in trivializing the situation. They told the local media that the data was scrambled, and the information mostly belonged to a publicly available phone directory. With the law requiring notifications of patrons, all affected individuals were duly informed. The company further added, "After discovering the issue, the company engaged two elite cybersecurity firms to investigate and rectify the matter. At MGM Resorts, we take great responsibility for protecting guest data and have increased the security of our network to prevent such occurrences in the future."
MGM refuses to acknowledge the implications of the information leak affecting celebrities and government employees, suggesting that not everyone mentioned in the email addresses is necessarily involved.
In Europe, similar cyberattacks have been noted. A UK National Lottery hacker, named Anwar Batson, arrested in mid-January, gained unauthorized access to roughly 26,000 accounts in 2016. Batson was silent about the allegations until December 2020 when he admitted guilt in four of the seven counts. This lenient sentence is tied to the limited financial losses and his confession, where he drained small sums of money up to 13 pounds, making an estimated €269,000.
In comparison, the MGM case may have a scale similar to the cyberattack on Marriott in 2018. The data breach involved approximately 500 million guests, linked to state-sponsored Chinese hackers. The investigation into the MGM case is ongoing.
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Source: www.onlinecasinosdeutschland.com
