Security News > 2024 > July > UK cops arrest teen suspect in MGM Resorts cyberattack probe

Cops in the UK have arrested a suspected member of the notorious Scattered Spider crime gang, which is accused of crippling MGM Resorts in Las Vegas with ransomware last summer.

West Midlands police - along with officials from Britain's National Crime Agency and the FBI - cuffed the 17-year-old, of Walsall, England, on Thursday.

The swoop - which comes about a month after Spanish police arrested the suspected leader of Scattered Spider - is part of a larger international probe into "a large-scale cyber hacking community which has targeted a number of major companies which includes MGM Resorts," British police said on Friday afternoon.

The ransomware infection at MGM, which shut down its IT systems and casinos, cost the US entertainment giant upwards of $100 million to clean up, it reports.

Gangs like the Scattered Spider crew "Successfully targeted multiple victims around the world taking from them significant amounts of money," said West Midlands Detective Inspector Hinesh Mehta.

"MGM, which did not pay the ransom after its systems were knocked offline in last year's infection, chimed in with:"We're proud to have assisted law enforcement in locating and arresting one of the alleged criminals responsible for the cyber attack against MGM Resorts and many others.

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