Teenage boy arrested by police in relation to the MGM Resorts ransomware attack
A ransomware attack that caused the shutdown of MGM Resorts in Las Vegas last year may have been carried out by a teenage boy. The West Midlands Police Department in England announced the arrest of a 17-year-old from Walsall on Thursday in connection with the incident at the resort and casino on the Las Vegas strip.
The teenager was arrested on suspicion of blackmail and breaching the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. He was released on bail, according to a statement from the police department.
Officers were tracking down the teenage suspect as part of a joint investigation with Britain’s National Crime Agency and the FBI. The police department said it found evidence at the teenager’s address, including “several digital devices that are undergoing forensic examination.”
The statement also said the teenager was part of a “global cybercriminal group,” but did not specify which group. The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group claimed responsibility for the MGM Resorts cyber outage. The attack took place on September 12, 2023, allegedly with a simple 10-minute phone call to a Help Desk employee using information obtained from LinkedIn. The group has also claimed responsibility for a similar ransomware attack against the Esteé Lauder beauty brand.
“All the ALPHV ransomware group did to compromise MGM Resorts was to jump on LinkedIn, find an employee, and then call the Help Desk,” the organization wrote in a message to X.
MGM Resorts’ system shutdown lasted nine days and caused a massive outage at all of its casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Later, news emerged that other casinos, such as Caesars, were also targeted by the second group, but decided to pay hackers tens of millions of dollars to prevent the private companies’ information from being released.
