A Las Vegas teenager has been arrested after allegedly pulling off a series of high-profile cyberattacks on some of the Strip’s biggest casino names — including Caesars and MGM Resorts.
According to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the hacks happened between August and October 2023 and were linked to a cybercrime group known by multiple names, including Scattered Spider, Octo Tempest, UNC3944, and 0ktapus. The group is accused of infiltrating casino networks, causing chaos across the city’s most famous resorts.
The FBI’s Las Vegas Cyber Task Force zeroed in on a teenage suspect, who surrendered himself on Sept. 17. He was booked on multiple charges, including extortion, conspiracy, and unlawful acts regarding computers.
Reports say the hacker used a simple but devastating trick to get inside MGM’s systems: pretending to be an employee he found on LinkedIn. By convincing the IT department to reset the account password, he allegedly gained access to MGM’s internal network within minutes.
The cyberattack wreaked havoc — slot machines shut down, hotel key cards stopped working, bookings were blocked, and employees couldn’t access their email. MGM later reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the disruption cost them around $100 million. Caesars also disclosed a breach around the same time, admitting that while they paid to try to ensure stolen data was deleted, they couldn’t guarantee the information was gone.
Police say the teen now faces three counts of obtaining and using personal identifying information, along with charges of extortion and computer crimes. Prosecutors are pushing to have him tried as an adult given the scale of the case.
He should be tried as an adult. He knew what he was doing was wrong. But, I would like to know why it is that we will try a teenager as an adult when some conglomerate loses money, but we won’t try a teenager as an adult when he commits murder. I guess the fatcats losing money is more important than a person losing their life.
He did an adult crime.I am84 and cannot figure how people can scam others
Try him as an adult? Who are you kidding? Adults could not do what this ‘teen’ did!
MJ
As a retired IT Professional with decades of experience, I could have done that. Many of my technically inclined friends could have too, except for the fact that we are moral and law-abiding people.
Give that teenager some serious Time Out!!!!
hilarious!!!