(Bloomberg) — Caesars Entertainment Inc. has paid tens of millions of dollars to hackers who breached company policies and released company information in recent weeks, two people familiar with the matter said.
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Caesar is expected to disclose the cyberattack in an arrest warrant soon, the people said. Disclosure of the suspected Caesars breach comes after another Las Vegas entertainment giant, MGM Resorts International, announced earlier this week that it had been hacked.
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Caesars did not respond to requests for comment. The company’s shares fell 2.7 percent to $52.35 on Wednesday.
The group behind the attack is known as Disintegrated Spider, or UNC 3944, according to its men. According to cyber security experts, its members are adept at social engineering to gain access to large corporate networks. In Caesar’s case, the hackers first breached external IT providers before reaching the company’s network, the people said.
Hackers began targeting Caesars in 2011. It’s August 27, according to one of the people.
Members of the group are believed to be 19-year-old adults living in the United States and the United Kingdom, according to a person who has investigated several hackings.
Hacker bands demand payment in cryptocurrency if they demand a ransom. Some attacks deploy ransomware that locks computer files, and the hackers provide a decryption key if the victim pays. Recently, however, hacking groups have stolen data from companies and demanded payment, threatening to release the data unless paid.
(Updates with additional information in the seventh paragraph)
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