MGM Resorts Las Vegas Cyberattack Could Cost Up to $8.4M PER DAY as IT Systems Remain Down: New Employee Says Pay Delayed in Chaos

MGM Resorts could lose up to $8.4 million a day as its IT systems remain down following a massive cyberattack, as a new employee says his pay is behind in the chaos.

Disruptions at hotels and casinos owned by MGM Resorts International have lasted for more than a week, after the company was breached by hackers seeking a ransom to restore access.

The giant company could currently lose between $4.2 million and $8.4 million in daily revenue – and around $1 million in cash flow every day, a gaming industry analyst said in a report to investors, according to Las Vegas Review Journal.

In a weekly report released Sunday, stock analyst David Katz estimated that MGM could suffer a 10 to 20 percent decline in revenue and cash flow “for the days when current conditions exist.”

While the company said Friday that salaries had been paid, a new employee at the T-Mobile Arena, a joint venture between MGM and AEG, claimed over the weekend that he had not yet received his check. pay.

ARIA still had some offline slots, with the rest working on cash and manual pay only.

“We all started checking our accounts and found we were all blocked,” said Alvin Evans, who was training to join the arena security team.

“We all started checking our accounts and found we were all blocked,” said Alvin Evans, who trained to join the arena security team.

‘How can this happen? My information is on these apps, so it really worries me,” he said.

The new employee said he had not received his check on Saturday.

“I tried calling HR, I sent emails, I did everything I could and no one got back to me,” Evans told the Local. Fox Affiliate.

On Sunday, Twitter user Jacob Orth gave an update on the situation at the Bellagio casino and said that most of the slot machines were working.

Videos posted from MGM properties on the Las Vegas Strip, including ARIA and Bellagio, on Thursday evening showed extremely long check-in lines and some slot machines remained offline.

MGM Resorts said the incident began Sunday, affecting reservations and casino floors in Las Vegas and other states. Videos on social media showed video slots going dark. Some customers said their hotel room cards didn’t work and others said they were canceling their trip this weekend.

In a statement released Thursday evening, the hackers claiming responsibility for the breach said they maintained access to “part of MGM’s infrastructure” and threatened “additional attacks” if their ransom demands were not met. were not satisfied.

On Sunday, Twitter user Jacob Orth gave an update on the situation at the Bellagio casino and said that most of the slot machines were working.

MGM’s ongoing woes come after rival gaming giant Caesars Entertainment confirmed it detected a breach last week – but Caesars reportedly paid a ransom of around $15 million and avoided any customer-related disruption.

The FBI told DailyMail.com it was investigating the incidents at both Caesars and MGM, adding: “As this is an ongoing investigation, we are unable to provide any details. additional details.”

Both breaches appear to have been initiated through “social engineering” attacks, in which hackers tricked human targets into handing over their login credentials, such as by posing as real employees during telephone calls to helplines.

The attribution of the attacks remained ambiguous. A group called Scattered Spider contacted journalists to claim responsibility for both violations, while an affiliated gang known as ALPHV issued a lengthy statement contradicting those claims and claiming it had carried out the attack on the MGM.

It is possible that the two groups, known to have affiliated relationships, both took part in the attacks, or are in fact factions within the same loosely knit hacker collective.

Last week, casino enthusiasts shared images of broken slot machines

Tony Anscombe, chief security officer of San Diego-based cybersecurity firm ESET, said it appears the invasions may have been carried out as a “social engineering attack,” meaning the hackers used tactics like a phishing phone call, text message or email. to violate the system.

“Security is only as good as the weakest link and unfortunately, as with many cyberattacks, human behavior is the method cybercriminals use to gain access to a company’s crown jewels,” Anscombe said.

For MGM guests, the result of that company’s breach was a week of confusion and frustration.

“MGM hack causing chaos,” ARIA user Rachel Hooks posted, sharing video of long lines and broken slot machines. “Ridiculous control in queues and broken casinos. »

At the Bellagio, @JacobLasVegasLife posted a video showing huge lines for check-in at the hotel.

MGM hotels have reportedly been forced to adopt outdated measures at check-in counters, writing down guest information and credit card numbers by hand, as system disruptions persist.

The outage appears to be affecting MGM properties outside of Vegas, including the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the Mississippi-based Biloxi.

MGM was hacked in 2019, with 142 million customers affected.

Among those involved in the breach were Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Justin Bieber, according to previous reports.

ZDNet verified that there was no financial information in the breach and, according to an MGM spokesperson, it was primarily “contact information such as names, postal addresses and email addresses “.