Leo Gillick
Las Vegas, the home of US gambling, has experienced a major data breach, as a teenage hacker cruised his way into their systems, costing the casinos millions of dollars.
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Typically, the house always wins. But, in this case, it was completely beaten. A young man, unnamed due to his age, managed to get into multiple Las Vegas casinos’ internal systems. Using his new access, he tampered with slot machines, disabled keycards, and locked employees out of their accounts.
- According to the report, the hacker cost the casinos more than $100 million. However, it has not been revealed if the teenager took the money for themselves. As present, it appears they just set out to cause havoc. It certainly worked.
The teen hacker turned himself in after his security breach. After an investigation that began in 2023, after the casino attacks, a teenager was identified as a prime suspect. They were then questioned by the police and surrendered themselves.
They are currently being tried as a minor. However, according to the report, “The Clark County District Attorney’s Office is seeking to transfer the juvenile to the criminal division, where he would face these charges as an adult.”
Soft Casino Security
It didn’t take a mastermind to slip past the casino security. The young hacker simply requested a password reset, posing as a member of casino security. They had stolen the identity via a basic LinkedIn search.
Within 10 minutes, according to the investigation, the hacker managed to get into the casino’s security systems. From here, they started causing mischief. The various gambling dens lost hundreds of millions as a result.
The hacker was, allegedly, a member of a group. The attack was “attributed to an organized cyber threat-actor group known by several names to include ‘Scattered Spider,’ ‘Octo Tempest,’ ‘UNC3944,’ and/or ‘0ktapus.”
Getting through a casino’s security like that is a real point of pride for a hacker. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the teen do no time at all, and end up with a job in US cyber security instead. There’s nothing better for a hacker’s CV than a big heist like this.
