Millions of data from MGM Resorts have been recently exposed to a data breach. More than 142 million of the hotel giant’s personally identifiable information (PII) had been publicly dumped on Telegram, involving client records such as names, email addresses, mobile numbers, birthdates, and postal addresses.
MGM Resorts International is one of the many luxurious hotel chains and entertainment firms globally, with hotels branched out worldwide.
Security researchers discovered the data breach on four archive files on Telegram, containing over 8.7GB of database freely available for access. MGM Resorts had previously suffered a data leak in 2020, where more than 10 million of their data were posted on a hacking forum site. However, this new incident allows anyone to download the compromised data easily since it is publicly shared.
The recent data breach incident that hit MGM Resorts happened last May 22, affecting more than 30 million of their clients.
The massive amount of the hotel giant’s compromised client data could allow phishing operators to victimise anyone through email or text messages, using their information as a key to trick them. For the MGM Resorts’ clients, even those who have been customers since 2017, experts strongly recommend avoiding clicking on malicious links or files attached to suspicious messages coming from unknown email or SMS senders.
Threat actors who could get ahold of the leaked data can conduct several cybercrimes on their targets, including financially-motivated scams and phishing to spread malware.
Furthermore, these attack operators have been upgrading their tactics over time, such as utilising easily-accessible social media platforms like Telegram to expose stolen data and communicate with their clients. The encryption feature on Telegram also gives hackers a way to become anonymous, thus making their procedures easier.
Through the security experts’ forensic analysis of cybersecurity incidents, it has been less difficult to probe the incidents and share the latest developments and findings with clients and the public. Like the MGM Resorts incident, people exposed to security risks are advised to implement immediate mitigation measures to safeguard themselves against potential attacks.
