Caesars Entertainment, owner of the famous Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, is the latest name cited as a victim of cyber attackers targeting casinos. After a ransomware attack, the company is said to have paid a ransom of $30 million.

After all, the house doesn’t always win. Caesars Entertainment, owner of dozens of casinos and hotels, recently fell victim to a ransomware attack. The company is said to have ultimately paid the hackers around thirty million dollars in ransom in order to regain control of its systems and not experience any data leaks. Other sources speak of “only” fifteen million dollars.

Rien ne va plus

What happens in Vegas (and in this case beyond) can sometimes have serious consequences for the casinos and hotels there. A few days after the cybersecurity problems at the MGM Resorts group, an attack on Caesars Entertainment also came to light. However, the latter dates from a few weeks ago, which would potentially make MGM the second victim. This may indicate a trend and embarrass similar companies.

However, Caesars Entertainment did a pretty good job of keeping the attack out of the public eye, and according to several sources, so did the company Sources Just paid. The Scattered Spider group is said to be responsible for this attack, and according to the Financial Times they were also the perpetrators in the MGM Resorts case. The group probably operates from the UK or certainly somewhere in Europe, but is also said to include Americans among its members.

Scattered Spider uses various phishing techniques to obtain information such as employee login credentials and passwords. Sometimes it’s as simple as phone calls where employees are manipulated into revealing such things. This once again underlines the need for adequate training and awareness of cyber threats among employees.

Until recently, companies in the US were not required to report cyberattacks, but that changed in July of this year. Companies such as Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts are publicly traded companies and are therefore required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to report such incidents to make public. So we can only guess whether there were incidents before July.