MGM Resorts is facing 'ongoing' cyberattack that sent reservation and booking systems offline

On Tuesday, March 17, 2020, individuals were seen strolling in front of the Bellagio Resort & Casino operated by MGM Resorts International located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

A recent blog post highlighted a photograph taken by Joe Buglewicz, sourced from Bloomberg via Getty images. This image was the focus of the blog, which discussed the important message that it conveyed.

The company MGM Resorts, which runs casinos and hotels, closed off several of its computer systems, including its website due to a concern regarding cybersecurity. This was announced by the company on Monday via social media.

The first closure heavily affected every part of the casino's operations. Everything from the way they handled reservations and bookings to the functionality of their electronic key cards and the actual casino gaming area was reportedly impacted by the power outage.

The email systems of the company were reportedly disabled due to a cybersecurity issue, and they have not been reinstated yet.

According to the company's statement on Monday evening, their casino floors are now running smoothly. However, it seems that the systems managing their numerous hotel rooms and restaurant reservations are still experiencing problems, even more than 24 hours after news of the issue first surfaced.

MGM has a lot of hotels in Las Vegas and the rest of the US. Based on what they told the SEC, they make more money from their hotel rooms in Las Vegas than they do from their casinos. During the period of June 30th, they earned $706.7 million from their hotel rooms and only $492.2 million from their casinos.

MGM announced on X (previously known as Twitter) that they promptly initiated an inquiry with the aid of top external cybersecurity professionals. They also informed law enforcement and took swift measures to safeguard their systems and information, including the closure of specific systems.

The FBI declared that it had knowledge about the incident that is still in progress; however, they did not furnish any additional details.

The stock of MGM dropped by almost 2.4% at the end of trading on Monday.

You can't access MGM's website anymore as they have set up a landing page telling visitors to contact their hotels or casinos by phone instead. It's not certain when the issue started, but some people on social media said MGM's systems were down since Sunday night.

The business has faced issues with cybersecurity before. Last year, over 10 million individuals who visited MGM had their personal information revealed on a hacking website. The company acknowledged the breach occurred sometime in the summer of 2019.

It is yet uncertain what actions the government will take aside from having the FBI step in. The government classified the gaming and lodging industry as part of the "commercial facilities sector" and deemed it as an important part of the infrastructure back in 2003.

In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning that a massive lack of communication or a malicious cyber attack could lead to significant disruptions in payment and basic business operations. In addition, it could compromise the confidentiality of both company and customer data, harm the reputation and integrity of the company, and create considerable legal and financial difficulties.