Nevada state websites, phone lines knocked offline by cyberattack

A cyberattack took down systems, websites and phone lines used by the state government of Nevada after an incident on Sunday morning. 

Nevada governor Joe Lombardo released a statement on Monday afternoon telling the public that emergency services are still available but the network incident “continues to impact the availability of certain state technology systems on the state network.”

“Some state websites or phone lines may be slow or briefly unavailable during recovery,” he said. 

The governor added that the state is working with local, tribal and federal partners to restore services, and is “using temporary routing and operational workarounds to maintain public access where it is feasible."

Nevada government offices did not offer in-person services on Monday and said agencies would announce reopenings at a later date. 

As of Monday evening, the Nevada state website was still down. State residents were warned to be wary of scams and never provide information or bank details by phone or email. 

The investigation will determine whether a data breach occurred, the statement added. State offices did not respond to requests for comment. No hacking group has taken credit for the incident. 

The attack was announced one day after state officials in Maryland also reported a cyberattack that impacted some critical government services. 

The Black Hat and DEFCON cybersecurity conferences took place in Las Vegas, Nevada just two weeks ago. Las Vegas previously dealt with significant operational issues when a ransomware attack took down MGM Resorts International — which owns multiple high-profile hotels including Mandalay Bay, the Bellagio, the Cosmopolitan and the Aria.

The ransomware attack caused chaotic scenes across Las Vegas, with everything from slot machines to hotel room keys and ATMs knocked out of service for days. Hotels were unable to accept credit cards and guests were left scrambling to find alternative housing while staff at multiple casinos had to calculate slot machine losses and wins by hand.