A teenage boy may be responsible for a ransomware attack last year in Las Vegas. An unidentified 17-year-old from Walsall, England, who allegedly shut down a resort and casino on the Las Vegas strip last year, confirmed Thursday that they had arrested him.
The teenager has been arrested on suspicion of blackmail and breaching the UK’s Computer Misuse Act. According to the information provided by the police department, he was released on bail.
Police officers have tracked down the teenage suspect as part of a joint investigation with the UK’s National Crime Agency and the FBI. The police department said they found evidence at the teen’s address, including “a number of digital devices that will be forensically examined.”
The statement also said the teenager was part of a “global cybercriminal group,” but did not say which group he belonged to. The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware group has announced their responsibility . The attack took place on September 12, 2023, with a simple 10-minute phone call to a Help Desk agent using information obtained from LinkedIn. The group also claimed responsibility for a similar ransomware attack on a beauty brand .
“To compromise MGM Resorts, the entire ALPHV ransomware group logged onto LinkedIn, found an employee, and then contacted the Help Desk,” the organization wrote on X.
The shutdown of the MGM Resorts system was long in coming and made a big splash in all of their casinos on the Las Vegas Strip. Reports later surfaced that other casinos, such as Caesars, were also targeted by a different group, but chose to pay hackers tens of millions of dollars to prevent the release of private company data.
