The 17-year-old is linked to the ransomware attack that brought down MGM Resorts for days.
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Police in the UK have arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with last year’s cyberattack on MGM Resorts, as reported by the BBC and 404 Media. With the help of the FBI and the UK’s National Crime Agency, the West Midlands Police took the teen into custody on Friday on suspicion of violating the UK’s laws on hacking and blackmail.
The West Midlands Police say the suspect has been released on bail while the department investigates. It will also perform a forensic examination on a “number of digital devices” recovered from the teen’s address in Walsall, England.
Last September, ransomware hackers broke into MGM’s systems using social engineering techniques, bringing the company’s networks of hotels and casinos down for days. The hackers responsible for the attack appear to have teamed up with the prolific ransomware group ALPHV (also known as BlackCat) to deploy ransomware on MGM’s systems, according to The Washington Post.
“The FBI, in coordination with its partners, will continue to relentlessly pursue malicious actors who target American companies, no matter where they may be located or how sophisticated their techniques are,” Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director of FBI’s Cyber Division, says in a press release.
A report from Reuters last year said that the FBI was aware of the casino hackers six months before the breach and that the agency “struggled” to stop them despite knowing the identities “of at least a dozen members.”
