Nevada's recovery efforts continue following a statewide cyberattack that took many government services offline, but Gov. Joe Lombardo said the state is "well ahead" of schedule in restoring operations.
Lombardo addressed the cyberattack last week and provided new clarity on what systems were not compromised during the breach.
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The governor said financial systems remain secure, and the Department of Motor Vehicles and programs like Medicaid and SNAP were never compromised. However, Lombardo acknowledged that some data was taken during the attack.
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To understand what this means for Nevada residents, I spoke with Dr. Greg Moody, lead professor of information systems at UNLV.
"They've checked out the room with the DMV — no fingerprints. Checked out the bank account rooms — no fingerprints there," Moody said. "Where they have found fingerprints, it's a system that has data, but not personally identifying or financial data. It could be schedules, documents, even future planning — but not your financial or personal data."
Moody said the governor is under tight federal direction, which means he's likely giving as much information as he can while being cautious not to compromise the ongoing investigation.
For now, Moody said Nevadans can feel some relief about the scope of the breach.
"The state, when they were notified of the breach, were preemptive and they took everything offline," Moody said. "That helps the attack to stop going forward, and so that preventative nature might have helped make the attack less drastic than it could have been."
However, Moody said the state will still face significant costs to repair the damage.
"So those new costs are probably going to overrun the IT budget for the state, and the state will have to figure out where they're going to pull other funds from to cover it," Moody said.
Lombardo said if investigators discover any personal data was taken, Nevadans will be notified and given resources to protect themselves.
"What I usually advise is just follow your financial data," Moody said. "You have the three credit monitoring places — pull down your free report, track your credit card, track your debit card. But most likely, the state doesn't have your literal financial data."
Moody said the state plans a post-incident review to pinpoint security gaps, noting that smaller counties may have been the most vulnerable points in the system.
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