Caesars Entertainment Pays $15 Million Ransom to Cyber-Hackers after Breach UPDATED

[usonian]

Last edited Thu Sep 21, 2023, 09:56 PM - Edit history (1)

MGM resumed operations.
https://gizmodo.com/mgm-resorts-operations-resume-10-days-after-cyberattack-1850860489

Same attacker as Caesar's.
https://fortune.com/2023/09/13/mgm-caesars-hacked-ransomware/

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/casino-giant-caesars-pays-15-million-ransom-to-cyber-hackers-after-breach/

The company wrote that on September 7, “we determined that the unauthorized actor acquired a copy of, among other data, our loyalty program database, which includes driver’s license numbers and/or social security numbers for a significant number of members in the database.” The Caesars Rewards loyalty program has over 65 million members

The cybercrime group behind the attack demanded a $30 million ransom, according to news reports. Caesars Entertainment leaders negotiated and paid the cyber-criminals $15 million.

The FBI discourages paying ransoms to cyber-hackers, saying that it won’t guarantee an organization will get its data back, and it can incentivize more attacks.

“We have taken steps to ensure that the stolen data is deleted by the unauthorized actor, although we cannot guarantee this result,” the SEC filing says. Caesars Entertainment is offering “credit monitoring and identity theft protection” to its loyalty program members.

Not much more at the link.

If you want a techie take on this, (it wanders) there's a thread at Hacker News.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37572518