Caesars and MGM Are Not the Only Victims of Hackers, Okta Says

Two of the biggest gambling companies in America, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, recently became targets of cyberattacks. Hackers likely related to the ALPHV and Scattered Spider groups breached the companies’ cyber defenses, taking hold of valuable data.

New reports, however, show that Caesars and MGM Resorts weren’t the only victims, Reuters reported.

The news outlet spoke with David Bradbury, chief security officer at Okta, an identity management specialist. He claimed that the chain of cyberattacks has also affected three other companies managed by his firm. While Bradbury did not disclose which the other three companies are, he noted that his team is currently helping the official investigation into the attacks.

Okta is a company that provides identity services to companies, helping their users securely log into their platforms. Currently serving 17,000 clients across the world, the tech supplier identified multiple cyberattacks last month. Bradbury explained that a lot happened in a short period of time, which is why his team wanted to inform the industry at large about what was happening.

Scattered Spider Assisted ALPHV with the Attacks

In line with earlier reports, the Okta noted that the attacks employed social engineering with some hackers impersonating employees of their target firms to gain access to sensitive data. This type of attack has been an increasingly big problem for companies because of its efficiency.

Bradbury told Reuters that his team has seen a concerning rise in similar cyberattacks over the past twelve months.

Speaking about the groups behind the attacks, Bradbury noted that Scatter Spider, originally believed to be behind the attacks, was likely in cahoots with ALPHV, which later claimed the cyberattack on MGM. The latter cybercrime group admitted to the attack on its official website and urged MGM to strike a deal.

Usually, similar attacks see hackers gain hold of confidential data and threaten to distribute it online if not paid. Earlier reports say that Caesars allegedly reached an agreement with the hackers that targeted its business. Rumors say that the money the gambling giant had to pay was in the tens of millions of dollars.

MGM Resorts, meanwhile, refrained from exploring the topic, instead referring to the attacks as a “cybersecurity issue.”

MGM Resorts and Caesars aren’t the only recent victims of cyberattacks. Earlier this month, the crypto gambling giant Stake.com was hit by an unprecedented attack, losing tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. The FBI believes that the attack was staged by the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group.