For those who stayed on an MGM Resort property previously, you may be included what is known as a data dump. Personal details of over 10.6 million former guests have been exposed. Breach Alert – MGM Resorts

Breach Alert – MGM Resorts

What Happened

According to information, during the summer of 2019 MGM Resorts has a data breach that affected 10,683,188 former hotel guests. Per what a rep for MGM told ZDNet, “Last summer, we discovered unauthorized access to a cloud server that contained a limited amount of information for certain previous guests of MGM Resorts”. “We are confident that no financial, payment card or password data was involved in this matter.”

The information, which was part of the breach, included in the leaked files are personal details such as full names, home addresses, phone numbers, emails, and dates of birth. It seems no credit card information was included in the breach. According to the rep for MGM Resorts, they notified affected guests last year when the breach happened, but it seems this breach just went under the radar until this week, when ZDNet reported on it.

Breach Alert – MGM Resorts

What Can You Do To Protect Yourself

Unfortunately, when you give your information out publicly, you are at the mercy of the company you are dealing with. You hope that they are reputable and take your information security seriously.  There are things you can do to try and minimize the damage in case something happens.

The 1st Thing

The 1st thing is one that annoys most people with the “I dont want to have to remember multiple passwords”, however it is the #1 thing you can do. DO NOT USE the same password for all your accounts. For a large majority of sites the log in page looks like

where you get asked for your email and a password. So you sign in with your email account and set up the same password that you use for your actual email. The day the business site is breached, and its not if but in most cases its when, the bad guys now have your site log in and your email log in. They can then go to other major sites and try your log in and if you have the same password for all, they have full control over everything (bills, banking, emails, etc).  If you don’t want to remember all of those passwords. You can use programs like LastPass , Zoho. These are just 2 of the many programs available that will help you keep track of your passwords for you.

The 2nd Thing

The 2nd thing you can do to try and protect yourself, get a second phone number. Yes i know that sounds weird, but you may also think “I don’t want to spend more money”.  Well it makes sense, and it can be done for free.  Your phone is your most valuable asset during the day, however how many times a day do you get the annoying calls about your Car Warranty expiring or something about your social security number? Well you get those calls because the scammers found your phone exposed on the web somewhere.

So what can you do, keep your main number for family and friends (and your boss of course), but then you can use a service like Google Voice which is free to use.  Google will give you a phone number for free, and you use the google voice app to make calls and receive calls from that phone number. This is the number you fill out for credit cards purchases, for reservations, for applications, or anything else public, where you need to provide a number.  Why would you do that, well because if your number is breached, all you need to do is go to the Google app and deactivate the number and no harm, your friends and family can still reach you with no problem.  You save yourself from having to inform those who you want to be able to reach you about your number change.

The 3rd Thing

The 3rd thing you can do is sign up for services like Firefox Monitor

or check on sites like Have I Been Pwned, to see if any of your accounts is found on the dark web.

If you accounts are found on the dark web, 1st thing, CHANGE YOUR PASSWORDS and don’t use Password1, ChangeMe123 or your last name as your password.

Final Thought

Just remember your digital identity is just as valuable as money to the bad guys. So the same way you take steps to secure your home or your car when you leave, make sure you take steps to secure your digital identity.

Source(s)

• ZDnet – MGM Data Breach
• Google Voice – Google Voice Screenshot
• Firefox Monitor – Firefox Monitor screenshot
• Have I Been Pwned – Have I Been Pwned Screenshot

Breach Alert – MGM Resorts