Tech Security Bytes

As suspected, the ALPHV group has formally taken responsibility for the recent MGM hack.

Full details reported here : ALPHV ransomware gang releases lengthy statement on MGM hack – Cyber Security Connect

Key points:

• ALPHV / BlackCat (suspected as the origin of the attack) takes responsibility for the hack
• That said, they attribute the long and widespread outage in MGM systems to an overly conservative and incompetent response by MGM staff
• They criticize the company handling of the issue, noting the lack of response to their attempts to engage MGM staff and a “lurker” who did not communicate with them in channel they attempted to lever.
• BlackCat goes further with comments on inaccurate reporting by the Financial Times as well as direct criticism of MGM’s behavior outside this incident.

Of course, coming from a Threat Actor group, anything they say should be taken with a grain of salt, but this is an interesting update nonetheless. It’ll be interesting to see where this lands, it’s already “louder” than the Caesar’s hack last week that saw millions paid out to the attackers to quickly and quietly sweep things away…