17-year-old from England arrested in cyber hackings targeting MGM Resorts
Law enforcement authorities in England on Thursday arrested a 17-year-old boy in a small English town who is believed to have had a role in the September cyberattack that crippled MGM Resorts International for 10 days.
The unidentified teen was released on bond after being apprehended by the Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands in Wallsal, a small city in central England. Representatives of the unit were assisted by Britain’s National Crime Agency, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and MGM.
The suspect was taken into custody on suspicion of blackmail and Computer Misuse Act offenses.
Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of FBI’s cyber division, said Thursday’s arrest demonstrated the strength of the FBI’s domestic, international and private sector partnerships.
“The FBI, in coordination with its partners will continue to relentlessly pursue malicious actors who target American companies, no matter where they may be located or how sophisticated their techniques are,” Vorndran said in a release.
There was no indication how the suspect was affiliated with hacker gangs identifying themselves as Scattered Spider and ALPHV, which claimed responsibility for hacking into computer systems operated by Caesars Entertainment in August and at MGM Sept. 10.
Help from MGM
“We’re proud to have assisted law enforcement in locating and arresting one of the alleged criminals responsible for the cyberattack against MGM Resorts and many others,” MGM said in a statement as part of the announcement from police. “We know first-hand the damage these criminals can do and the importance of working with law enforcement to fight back. By voluntarily shutting down our systems, refusing to pay a ransom and working with law enforcement on their investigation and response, the message to criminals was clear: it’s not worth it.”
Caesars reportedly paid a $15 million ransom to hackers and was largely unaffected by the hacking incident while MGM didn’t pay anything but suffered through several days of computer problems after taking down its own systems to prevent further infiltration.
MGM reportedly lost $100 million as a result of the hack, but much of the losses were recovered through insurance payments.
The 10 MGM resorts in Las Vegas and its other resorts across the United States were unable to process credit card transactions, the websites and app were down, in-casino ATMs were offline and their paid parking access was compromised. Restaurant and attraction reservation systems failed. Company email also was offline.
The company, fearing worse damage to their systems, shut down networked slot machines and instead had to pay slot machine winners manually instead of through a machine’s ticket in-ticket out system that produces vouchers that could be redeemed for cash or inserted into other machines.
‘Complex investigation’
“This arrest has been made following a complex investigation which stretches overseas to America,” Detective Inspector Hinesh Mehta, cybercrime unit manager at Regional Organised Crime Unit for the West Midlands in Wallsal, said in a release.
“We have been working closely with the National Crime Agency and FBI.
“These cyber groups have targeted well-known organizations with ransomware and they have successfully targeted multiple victims around the world taking from them significant amounts of money.
“We want to send out a clear message that we will find you. It’s simply not worth it.”
British authorities said they recovered evidence at the suspect’s address including a number of digital devices which would undergo forensic examination.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X. The Review-Journal’s Caitlin Lilly contributed to this report.
