MGM Resorts International sued the Federal Trade Commission to stop an investigation into its handling of a cybersecurity attack last 12 months.
The company said the investigation deprived it of its basic due process rights and that FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan should recuse herself from the case, in keeping with the lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Washington.
Bloomberg earlier reported that Khan was visiting the MGM Grand on the Las Vegas Strip in September when the corporate was hit by a cyberattack that temporarily crippled its computer systems. According to Bloomberg, a receptionist asked Khan and her staff to jot down down their bank card information on a chunk of paper when checking into the hotel. Khan responded by asking the worker how MGM handles data security in this case.
Shortly thereafter, the FTC opened an investigation and in January asked the corporate to answer its handling of the situation, the lawsuit says. The agency asked the corporate to release greater than “100 categories of information.”
The company also claimed that the FTC relied on “inapplicable” regulations that apply only to financial services firms to require information from the casino operator.
FTC officials didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
The FTC had previously rejected the corporate’s request that Khan recuse himself from involvement within the investigation based on her personal experience with the cyberattack.
“As the most prominent person involved in the events in question — and the only such person widely named in press reports — Chairman Khan is both a potential plaintiff and a potential witness,” the corporate’s lawyers wrote within the lawsuit .
