Who is believed to be behind MGM hack?
September 14, 2023 – 8 News Now
MGM Resorts shut down computers inside its own network, leading to an epic collapse of its online systems and website, a statement by one of the world’s most notorious hackers seems to indicate.
This revelation, in the form of a post on social media Thursday, comes after days of wide-ranging speculation there – and in the mainstream media – about the identity of those responsible for the cyberattack that crippled the hotel and resort giant’s computer systems.
The statement – 18 paragraphs detailing and chronologizing the events leading up to and including the online takeover – seems to say that MGM saw AlphV, known colloquially as Alpha, hovering around its servers.
Then, the statement says: “As reported, MGM shut down computers inside their network in response to us,” the statement said. “We intend to set the record straight.”
AlphV seems to bristle at the notion that it convinced an MGM employee to provide login information, instead of going into excruciating detail about servers and network access. The statement said the hacker was hovering around certain online entryways before MGM “made the decision to ‘take offline’ seemingly important components of their infrastructure Sunday.”
Cybersecurity experts say the attack was financially motivated, and even though AlphV seems to take credit for the attack, they do not deny that Scattered Spider carried it out. 8 News Now spoke with Drew Schmitt, Practice Lead for the GuidePoint Research and Intelligence Team (GRIT), GuidePoint Security for more insights.