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