Las Vegas cyberattack

The City of Las Vegas successfully averted what could have been a disastrous cyberattack earlier this month.

City officials detected a cyberattack January 7, and in response immediately took several services offline, including its public-facing website. 

“We do not believe any data was lost from our systems and no personal data was taken. We are unclear as to who was responsible for the compromise, but we will continue to look for potential indications,” the city announced on its Twitter feed.

The cyberattack coincided with this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, or CES, which is the world’s largest showcase for technology products.

While city officials have declined to specify the nature of the attack, municipal governments have been a frequent target for ransomware-based malware. The city of Las Vegas is a regular target for hackers, facing 279,000 attempts to breach its systems, according to city spokesman David Riggleman.