Recent hacks of Caesars Entertainment and casinos owned by MGM were probably carried out by teens and young adults who have allied themselves with one of the world’s most notorious ransomware gangs, part of a trend that has alarmed security experts and defenders of corporate computer networks.
Known by a variety of names to security firms, including Scattered Spider, the group is tied to a Telegram account that boasted last week of the MGM hack, which as of Thursday was still keeping many services offline.
Security researchers have been vague about the makeup of the group, agreeing mainly that members are generally English-speaking, financially motivated and have been very active in the past two years, targeting large companies via stolen employee credentials and tricks such as convincing tech support employees that they have been accidentally locked out of their computers and need a new password.
