Catalin Cimpanu reports:
The personal details of more than 10.6 million users who stayed at MGM Resorts hotels have been published on a hacking forum this week.
Besides details for regular tourists and travelers, included in the leaked files are also personal and contact details for celebrities, tech CEOs, reporters, government officials, and employees at some of the world’s largest tech companies.
Read more on ZDNet.
Although the hack had flown under mainstream media notice, it was not really unknown, as at least some of the data had been leaked in the same forum last July and then a few days later, on a Russian-language forum. In a newly released book by Vinny Troia on researching cybercriminals, Troia has claimed that the hacker is a proficient hacker who goes by the nick “NSFW.”
Update of Feb. 21: I saw an article today, MGM Resorts hack may mask “specific, strategic attack” to get VIP details. The article quoted Sam Curry, chief security officer at Cybereason:
“The biggest concern in the MGM disclosure is that hackers stole deeper, more sensitive data on 1,300 individuals, including information off driver’s licenses and military ID cards,” said Curry.
“While it is too early to speculate, there is the possibility the theft that appears to have impacted 11 million customers is a diversion for a specific, strategic attack to access information on influencers in government, law enforcement, politics and the public and private sector.
Well, no. It is not to early to speculate, but why speculate when you could have actually researched what we did and do know about the hack and the hacker(s) already? There is simply no evidence that this hack was anything more than yet another big hack by young hackers who were not politically motivated at all. There has been a lot of drama concerning these particular hackers, two of whom have been arrested, but there was nothing to support the idea that the attack was a diversion of any kind.