Hackers threw Las Vegas casinos into chaos in 2023, taking down some of the Strip's biggest names. Two years later, a teenager is accused of orchestrating the attack. CBS News reporter Andres Gutierrez has the details.

Las Vegas

A 17-year-old has been arrested for allegedly orchestrating the 2023 cyberattacks that caused significant disruptions to major Las Vegas casinos, including the MGM Grand. Investigators say the attack began with the hacker impersonating an employee to gain access to internal systems, resulting in hotel operations being crippled and over $100 million in losses for MGM. 

The teenager faces charges such as identity theft, extortion, and unlawful computer acts, with prosecutors seeking to try him as an adult. Authorities believe he is connected to the Scattered Spider hacking group, which has collaborated with other cybercriminal organizations and targeted multiple industries across the United States.

Teen arrested in 2023 Las Vegas cyberattack

Back in 2023, Las Vegas casinos were thrown into chaos after hackers took down some of the strip's biggest names. Two years later, a teenager is accused of being behind the whole thing. CBS News reporter, Andres Gutierrez, is live for us in Las Vegas. Andres, great to see you. Let's start with the attacks themselves. What exactly went wrong inside those casinos? Well, Elizabeth, the MGM Grand was one of the casinos that got hit, and it all started with a phone call, according to investigators. A hacker ended up calling MGM Resort's help desk, pretending to be an employee. Within 10 minutes, he convinced them to reset a password, and that gave him access to all of the internal systems. Once inside, the hacker ended up crippling the hotel chain. Guests couldn't open their rooms because the digital key card stopped working. Slot machines on the casino floors shut down. Reservations and emails also went dark. In a regulatory filing, MGM later confirmed that it lost more than $100 million in revenue because of the hack. Around the same time, Caesars Entertainment told investors that hackers had stolen customer data, including driver's license numbers. Cyber security experts believe Caesars ended up likely paying a multi-million dollar ransom to contain the damage. Now, Elizabeth, both cases were tied to a hacking crew known as Scattered Spider. And Andres, now that authorities have someone in custody, what do we know about this teenager and the charges that he's facing? Well, Elizabeth, he is just 17 years old and ended up surrendering himself last week to the Clark County Detention Center. Court documents show he faces charges including identity theft, extortion, and unlawful computer acts. Prosecutors are asking a judge to try him as an adult because of the sererity of these attacks. Authorities say he is linked to the Scattered Spider group, which has targeted several companies across the U.S. Investigators do see him part of a larger operation. And Andres, 60 Minutes, I know, did a report last year on groups like Scattered Spider. What did we learn about how they're operating today? Well, in that report, Bill Whitaker ended up revealing how Scattered Spider has teamed up with another hacking group out of Russia called Black Cat, and here's how it works. Scattered Spider ends up specializing by getting inside a system. They impersonate employees, and once they're in the other group, Black Cat steps in with the ransomware, which locks up systems and ends up handling the negotiation of these multimillion-dollar ransoms. Experts still did tell 60 Minutes this partnership makes those attacks rather quickly and more damaging, and it's not just the casinos. They've gone after hotels, airlines, and tech companies. What is striking is how young many of these hackers are. Again, this one, in this case, 17 years old. Many of the teenagers also are fluent English speakers who know enough about our culture that they sound very believable on the phone, and so that is, according to investigators, how they were able to pull off this attack two years ago back in 2023, Elizabeth. Pretty amazing. Andres Gutierrez live for us in Vegas. Thanks so much, Andres.

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