Nevada Gaming Investigates Vegas Cyber Attacks

Since the Vegas cyber attacks threw the city for a loop last week, there have been a lot of public cries to not only catch those responsible, but to ensure that the methods they used do not expose peoples private data int he future. So far, the FBI has been handling the primary investigation, with some help from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, as well as San Francisco based identity and access management company Okta.

Now, the Nevada Gaming Commission is getting involved with the Vegas cyber attacks carried out against MGM and Caesars. Not so much to try to catch the suspects, but so that they can create a brief for the public, detailing the events, so that people can understand exactly what happened., and hopefully how. And perhaps develop a policy for these sorts of events moving forward. And let’s all admit that neither company has been exactly transparent with all the facts.

That’s why Gaming Commissioner Brian Krolicki is calling for a public update regarding the Vegas cyber attacks. He stated that the priority remains the recovery of information and that systems are secure, but also to ensure that customers are restored and protected. Both Caesars and MGM seem to think these attacks came from Eastern European, possibly even Russia. Krolicki  added that it’s important to develop a method for reporting these events in the future and take proactive measures to prevent them.

Hacking of these complex systems is a global story, not a Las Vegas story. “I think at some point in time when there’s the energy and understanding of what just happened if we could get some kind of briefing on what’s transpired that’s appropriate for public record and perhaps a policy going forward,” Krolicki said of the Vegas cyber attacks. The systems at Caesars were compromised but never went down. The systems at MGM experienced nationwide outages, but many systems are back online now.