Tag Archive for: Rich

Too Rich To Ransomware? MGM Brushes Off $100M in Losses


Following September’s ransomware attack on MGM Resorts, the hospitality and casino giant swiftly decided not to engage or negotiate with cybercriminals — and based on its most recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosure, the gamble paid off.

MGM’s incident response strategy was a sharp left turn from Caesars Entertainment, which after it was breached by the same threat actors, decided to pay a negotiated ransom of $15 million and move on. In the days following the casino cyberattacks, Caesars was back to day-to-day operations, while MGM struggled to claw back operations for more than a week.

In its revised SEC disclosure form 8-K, MGM reports it lost about $100 million as a result of the breach, which seems like a hefty price tag at first blush. However, the company noted that the losses will only slightly impact the company’s third quarter financials, with minimal potential spillover into the fourth quarter. For comparison’s sake, MGM hauled in nearly $4 billion in revenue in the second quarter of the year, across its global operations — and $2.1 billion in revenue from its Las Vegas properties alone.

“The Company does not expect that it will have a material effect on its financial condition and results of operations for the year,” MGM said. The casino juggernaut is already looking forward to November Formula 1 racing coming to the Vegas Strip, which it added will boost its fourth quarter earnings significantly.

Caesars, on the other hand, made the choice to pay, despite widespread guidance against meeting ransom demands.

“Paying a ransom to cybercriminals does not guarantee a full return of an organization’s systems and data, and only furthers the ransomware ecosystem,” according to Anne Cutler, cybersecurity evangelist with Keeper Security. “Although the $100 million in losses are costly on the surface, MGM’s decision not to pay the ransom followed the course of action recommended by cybersecurity experts, government, and law enforcement.”

The outcome makes a surprising business case for telling cybercriminals to pound sand following a ransomware attack.

Do Deep Pockets Make Orgs Better or Worse Targets?

Are some organizations just too rich to ransomware?

“No…

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Meet The Super Rich Czech Tech Company — And Its Russian CEO —Denying Links To The Huge SolarWinds Hack


Maxim Shafirov is looking grizzled, grumbling through a stubbled muzzle about having just two hours sleep, hunched over his computer as the snow falls behind him in a window that looks out to a wintry St. Petersburg. The Russian native’s grouchiness is understandable.

Shafirov is the CEO of Czech company JetBrains, which was likely one of the biggest tech companies you’d never heard of, until Wednesday when reports cited government sources saying it was being investigated for links to huge cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies and tech giants, via the hack of another low-profile IT provider, SolarWinds, and scores of its clients, including federal agencies. For millions of coders, the Prague-based business’ tools are invaluable, providing all manner of software to make their app building that much easier. Founded in 2000, it claims over 8 million paying users in over 213 countries. Company revenue for 2019, according to the most recently-available results for the privately-held business, stood at $270 million, with year-on-year growth of 33%. Shafirov, in an upbeat moment in an interview with Forbes, says that despite the Covid-19 pandemic, its revenue growth this last year was 10%, indicating near $300 million for 2020. The business was a so-called “unicorn” worth more than $1 billion, according to a JetBrains spokesperson.

Few outside the tech world would’ve paid the company much attention until reports in the New York Times, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal indicated those investigating what’s become one of the most severe acts of cyber espionage in recent memory were looking at the possibility JetBrains was involved. The reports hint JetBrains, or one of its apps, TeamCity, was hacked, leading to an infiltration at SolarWinds, which, in turn, had one of its own tools compromised and used to hijack customer networks. Amongst the victims are the Department of Justice, which yesterday revealed 3% of its Office 365 emails had been compromised. It joined the Department of Energy, the Treasury, Microsoft,…

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Rich and famous turn to ‘personal cyber security’ to protect phones – Financial Times

Rich and famous turn to ‘personal cyber security’ to protect phones  Financial Times
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