Kewadin Casinos in the Upper Peninsula are opening their doors again after being closed for more than two weeks due to a cyberattack on Feb 9. All five of the casinos are owned and operated by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians.
The attack targeted the tribe's phone and computer systems, disrupting healthcare services and government operations, along with tribal businesses.
The Sault Ste. Marie and St. Ignace casino locations are already open, while the casinos in Manistique, Christmas and Hessel will open Monday, March 3 at 12 p.m.
Tribal convenience stores located at four of the five casinos were also impacted by the attack. According to a release from the tribe, they are now mostly running at full operation.
“Some tribal organizations were impacted more severely than others and are still recovering, but we’re fortunate to be able to reopen Kewadin’s doors and continue serving as a prime entertainment destination for the eastern U.P.,” said Sault Tribe Chairman Austin Lowes in a press release.
Tony Haller is the Executive Director of Sault Ste. Marie Area Chamber of Commerce. He told WCMU the biggest impact is the loss of revenue for the tribe.
“I haven’t seen any trickle-down effect of the casinos shutting down yet, but I think it would impact some of the other businesses with the cancellation of reservations and such,” he said.
In a Feb. 28 post, Lowes said the tribe will not pay a financial demand from the "cyber criminals (who) have tried to extort a ransom for our Tribe’s data."
Lowes said this decision was made with guidance from law enforcement and cyber experts after the tribe was able to restore systems and recover data.
"... There was no guarantee we would have received what was promised. We could have paid their ransom and still had our data shared on the dark web," he wrote.
Lowes said the tribe is reviewing "hundreds of thousands of documents" of stolen information and will be reaching out to people who have been affected to set up free credit monitoring services. But he encourages people to take steps immediately to secure their information.
The Sault Tribe Board of Directors meeting scheduled for May 4 has been cancelled. Updated information can be found on their website.
An FBI investigation into the ransomware attack remains ongoing.
