How hackers hacked MGM Resorts in 10 minutes

It took 10 minutes hackers MGM Resorts in obtaining data from a chain of hotel-casinos, which affected the establishment’s production chain.

Ransomware group ALPHV/BlackCat claimed responsibility for the cyber outage on Tuesday, September 12, according to a report Malicious vx-underground file. The group claims it used common social engineering tactics or gaining the trust of employees to obtain inside information to try to extract a ransom from MGM Resorts, but the company is refusing to pay. The conversation that provided initial access took just 10 minutes, according to the group.

“All the ALPHV ransomware group did to compromise MGM Resorts was go to LinkedIn, find an employee, and then call customer service,” the organization wrote in a post that was independently verified by security researchers.

According to vx-underground, ALPHV has a reputation in the cybersecurity community as “an outstanding practitioner of initial access social engineering.” After this, he usually uses ransomware tactics to force the victim to pay and pursues large corporate targets.

What MGM Resorts Said

“Our resorts, including dining, entertainment and gaming, are currently operating.”