A sweeping ransomware cyberattack has caused several state-run agencies in Nevada to shut down, with officials saying some data was taken out of the state’s network by “malicious actors.”
The widespread attack Sunday shuttered the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Nevada Department of Public Safety, keeping those agencies and several others closed into Thursday, 2 News Nevada reported. The cyberattack also took down the website and phone lines for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which regulates gaming in the famous Vegas Strip, according to The Nevada Independent.
While state leaders initially believed no personal data had been stolen in the attack, they admitted Wednesday that some may have been taken.
“I must disclose that our ongoing forensic investigation has found evidence that indicates some data has been exfiltrated, or moved outside the state network, by the malicious actors,” said Tim Galluzi, the executive director of the Governor’s Technology Office.
“At this stage, we cannot yet identify or classify the specific nature of this data,” he added, according to CBS News.
The Nevada government's website was still offline as Thursday morning.
Governor Joe Lombardo’s office continues to provide updates on the attack, though much remained unclear Thursday, including the scope of the breach, what caused it or any suspects. The impacts of the attack are widespread, affecting the portal that allows residents to apply for Medicaid, SNAP and other benefit programs and also causing difficulties for some law enforcement agencies.
In Nye County, law enforcement officials are keeping track of deputies using pen and paper, Sheriff Joe McGill told Fox 5 Vegas.
“It is greatly affecting us every day… anything that is interfacing to the state is down.. So, we cannot run driver’s licenses, we cannot run license plates. We cannot run people for warrants,” McGill said.
“We are very much ham-stringed…We had to go over to our jail and go around and scan everybody’s wristband to create our own paper database on an Excel sheet so that we knew who’s in our jail,” McGill added.
While phone calls to 911 are going through, dispatchers aren’t able to access the computer systems used to track the information.
“The dispatchers are having to take as brief of notes as they possibly can in handwriting on a piece of paper… they’re having to keep track on another piece of paper of where their units are… It absolutely is an officer safety issue… Our CAD system, our Computer Aided Dispatch system… shows the GPS location based on the computer in the car. We don’t have that right now. More often than not, that's simply a convenience. But if somebody were to come on the air and scream, ‘I need help’, they don’t know where they are,” McGill said.
According to the report, not all police departments were impacted, and some still have fully operational computer systems.
Despite the disruptions, Lombardo said all state employees will be paid on time.
Nevadans should be wary of "unsolicited calls, emails or texts" exploiting the situation by asking for "personal information or payments,” Lombardo’s office added.
No timeline has been given for full restoration. The FBI is investigating the attack.
