The online attack that disrupted MGM Resorts International resorts and casinos across the country began with a social engineering breach of the company’s information technology help desk, according to a cybersecurity executive familiar with the investigation.
David Bradbury, chief security officer at the identity and access management company Okta, said his company issued a threat advisory in August about similar attacks against some of its customers, in which hackers used a low-tech social engineering tactics to gain entry and then more advanced methods that allow them to impersonate users on the networks.
