VEGAS IS UNDER ATTACK AND THEY ARE FUCKING THE CASINOS

Over the past few weeks, a group known as Scattered Spider has been taking some of the Vegas big boys - MGM and Caesars to the house. The group started its attacks a few weeks ago with Caesars Entertainment after allegedly contacting the company's IT vendor in late August, they were able to tap into the internal operating system (according to Insider). Caesars Entertainment was fed up and eventually paid a $15 million dollar ransom (that will be mostly covered by the cyber insurance policy CNBC). Just a few days later, the same group shut down MGM’s operating system, disabling the machines, hotel operating system, and MGM website. We are currently unaware if the issue has been resolved. These attacks likely won't hurt the bottom line of MGM and Caeser’s but it certainly exposes a weakness in the casino system. Will casinos be dishing out cash to the cyber security companies? Will companies like CrowdStrike (CRWD) or Palo Alto Networks (PANW) see some traction amidst this exposed weakness? This is something we will be watching over the next few weeks as MGM and Caesars Entertainment release statements. 

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