American casino operator MGM Resorts International was reportedly the victim of a cyber-security breach last summer that is said to have led to the personal data of some ten million customers being exposed.

According to a report from NBCNews.com, the hacked dataset included the full names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and e-mail details of people who had stayed at venues operated by the Las Vegas-headquartered firm but did not encompass financial data such as credit card information.

Right reaction:

MGM Resorts International is responsible for over 30 casino resorts including the MGM Grand Las Vegas, Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa and the MGM Grand Detroit and reportedly explained that it had first detected the illicit hack in July. The operator purportedly then attempted to notify affected customers that their personal data may have been stolen before contracting a pair of cyber-security forensics firms to help it conduct an internal investigation and remediate the issue.

Mysterious mission:

The casino giant reportedly proclaimed that it subsequently determined the breach had involved ‘a limited amount of information for certain previous guests’ that was obtained via ‘unauthorized access to a cloud server’. Although it is purportedly not known when or if this data was ever used, the technology news website at ZDNet.com is said to have revealed that some details were posted on a hacking forum as recently as Wednesday.

The statement from MGM Resorts International reads…

“We are confident that no financial, payment card or password data was involved in this matter. MGM Resorts International promptly notified guests potentially impacted by this incident in accordance with applicable state laws.”

Famous names:

NBCNews.com reported that Twitter boss Jack Dorsey and Canadian musician Justin Bieber may have had their information included in the hacked list while other victims had encompassed people connected to the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration and Department of Justice.

Proactive procedures:

MGM Resorts International reportedly told NBCNews.com that it is very serious about protecting customer information and has now ‘strengthened and enhanced the security of our network to prevent this from happening again.’