Denial to Pay Ransom Costs MGM Resorts a Whopping $100 Million
In September, one of the largest cyber attacks occurred on the MGM Resorts casino chain, details of which have only now become known. It lasted ten days and caused serious damage to the corporation.
MGM acknowledged that the company suffered $100 million in losses last month. In a statement, they said the attackers were unable to gain access to customers' bank account numbers or payment card details, but the incident affected other personal customer data, including their names, contact information, gender and date of birth.
The investigation into the cyber attack is ongoing and "leading cyber security experts are coordinating with law enforcement".
During the attack, casino management immediately contacted the FBI. It was on their recommendation that MGM did not make concessions to the hackers and did not pay them the required ransom. It was not disclosed how much money the attackers demanded. The FBI said that paying the required amount to hackers would only increase the likelihood of similar crimes in the future.
According to information provided by the company, the attack affected customers who carried out transactions before March 2019. MGM will contact each of them individually.
"It's corporate terrorism at its finest. We don't wish this on anybody," commented company CEO.
Julianna Svyrydenko
