In the early hours on August 24, Nevada experienced a sophisticated ransomware attack that led to various state systems being offline, in some cases for weeks, as state and federal investigators jumped to carry out the cyber response plan.
While the state was able to keep crucial services running like health and emergency services, the incident was a major attack on Nevada’s systems, the impacts of which are still being investigated more than a month later.
Situations like this are a stark reminder for governments and their partners how important it is to invest manpower, funding and education in cyber and information security. City & State’s Information Security Summit: Protecting NY’s Data & Information Systems, held on Tuesday at EmblemHealth in Lower Manhattan, delved into various facets of cybersecurity in New York, including what the biggest threats are and how to shield against them.
“When you talk about what is happening right now in the state of Nevada, it crystallizes to everybody when they say, ‘This is all theoretical, this really doesn’t happen,’” T-Mobile for Government Executive for Government Strategy Charlie O’Shea, who gave remarks, said.
The summit opened up with welcome remarks from EmblemHealth Chief Operating Officer Tom MacMillan, who spoke to the company’s work on information security. Emblem makes significant investments in information infrastructure, regularly reports to state regulatory entities and participates in information sharing with public and private entities.
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