'Power, influence, notoriety': The Gen-Z hackers who struck MGM, Caesars

An exterior view of MGM Grand hotel and casino, after MGM Resorts shut down some computer systems due to a cyber attack in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., September 13, 2023. REUTERS/Bridget Bennett

SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About a year ago, the U.S. security firm Palo Alto Networks began to hear from a flurry of companies that had been hacked in ways that weren't the norm for cybercriminals.

Native English-speaking hackers would call up a target company’s information technology helpdesk posing as an employee, and seek login details by pretending to have lost theirs. They had all the employee information needed to sound convincing. And once they got access, they’d quickly find their way into the company's most sensitive repositories to steal that data for extortion.