ShareThe US Department of Justice has come under fire for its lacklustre response to the recent spate of cybercrime hacks. Earlier this year, MGM Resorts was hacked, costing the company approximately $100 million in damages.
Now we have heard that not a single arrest has been made, despite the authorities knowing the identity of some of the perpetrators.
Reuters reported that the FBI appears powerless to stop what they described as “a hyper-aggressive cybercrime gang” that has run rampant across corporate America since 2021.
It has been more than six months since the FBI learned of the identities of more than a dozen hackers who conducted the September hacks at MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment, and yet no progress has been made to bring them to justice.
Michael Sentonas, president of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike told Reuters in an interview last month:
"I would love for somebody to explain it to me. For such a small group, they are absolutely causing havoc. I think there is a failure here”
When asked who was to blame for the lack of action, Sentonas said pure and simply it was a failure by law enforcement.
The Department of Justice refused to make any comment and the FBI only said they were still conducting enquiries.
$15 Million Ransom Paid
The numbers being bandied about are quite phenomenal. A $100 million hit might not be enough to put MGM out of business, but it certainly will have stung.Caesars is said to have paid out a $15 million ransom after hackers took control of its internal IT systems.
MGM is also being put through the mill over data breaches that saw its customers’ personal details being collected by criminals.
Roughly 230 companies across various industries have been hit since January 2022. Las Vegas casinos must be sweating at the thought of what might still be to come.
This really could be just the beginning if we can assume that the resorts are already doing their utmost to maintain a high level of security.
The group of hackers is known as Scattered Spider. The nickname comes from its organisational structure of individuals who collaborate in an ad-hoc fashion.
And it might sound like the group uses fairly innocuous tactics, but Microsoft published a report in October alleging that they had threatened to send a gunman to an employee’s house and to kill another’s wife.
Kevin Mandia, founder of American cybersecurity firm Mandiant, said:
"We have seen how they interact with victim companies. They are ruthless. If they're in democratised nations that work with the international community, you've got to catch them.”
