A data breach in Las Vegas comes amid tensions with Iran and a warning from homeland security of quote “potentially disruptive and destructive” Iranian cyber operations.
The city released the following statement to News 3:
The city of Las Vegas experienced a cyber compromise at 4:30 a.m. PST Tuesday. The city’s Information Technologies Department is assessing the extent of the compromise. When aware of the attempt, the city immediately took steps to protect its data systems. People interfacing with the city may experience brief interruptions of service, but so far those interruptions have been minimal. The city will have a clearer picture of the extent of the compromise over the next 24 hours.
A major cybersecurity attack could harm banks, the economy, and threaten how our society functions as a whole. When it comes to preparing for cyber-attacks, he says the U.S. needs to sharpen up.
Iranian hackers in recent years have wiped the computer servers of Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, crippled a Las Vegas casino, breached the networks of dozens of U.S. banks and been accused of trying to meddle in the 2020 presidential election https://t.co/nWM7wUbtU5
— POLITICO (@politico) January 3, 2020
It\’s too early to know whether Iran was behind this attack – but even if we remove the Iran angle, the fact of the matter is that cybercriminals and nation state actors are not going to slow down in attacking organisations, cities, and governments.
Asymmetrical, hybrid cyber warfare has become a reality the last 12 months. With practically limitless industrial targets, many not very well protected against attacks sponsored by nation-states, IT pros need to demand the budget to harden their defences and truly start applying defence-in-depth.