Last weekend, the U.S. state of Nevada was hit by a large-scale cyberattack. As a result, for several days authorities have been grappling with the aftermath of the incident, which disrupted government websites, phone systems, and online platforms, and also led to the closure of all government agencies at the beginning of the week.
The incident was first reported last Monday, when authorities described the attack as a “network incident” that affected government websites and telephone systems. It was emphasized that emergency services were not affected.
On Tuesday, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo issued an official statement confirming that the disruptions were caused by a hacker attack and that a criminal investigation has already been launched.
Officials report that they are working with local and federal partners to restore the affected services as quickly and safely as possible. They emphasize that work is underway around the clock. However, it is not yet clear when the affected services will be fully operational.
So, on Monday and Tuesday all state government agencies were forced to close. On Monday, employees were sent home, but by Tuesday they were back in their offices. It is now expected that in-person services for the public will resume by the end of this week.
“The state continues to recover, but the cyber incident is still affecting the availability of some government technology systems on the state network,” the statement said.
At this time, no evidence has been found that personal data was compromised during the attack, but authorities still advise citizens to exercise caution when receiving unsolicited phone calls, emails, or text messages.
Although Nevada authorities are not disclosing any technical details about the incident, disruptions this prolonged and large-scale are usually associated with attacks by ransomware gangs. However, no group has yet claimed responsibility for this incident.