Nevada governor says financial, DMV data are secure after cyberattack

Officials believe state financial data and DMV data were not breached in the recent cyberattack, Gov. Joe Lombardo said during a news conference Thursday.

Last week, state officials learned that data was moved out of the network during the cyberattack that officials discovered Aug. 24. Lombardo said Thursday that to the best of officials’ knowledge, the compromised data did not include state financial information, such as state bank account numbers, treasury funds or state budget payment systems.

“Our core financial systems remain secure and were not accessed by the attackers,” the governor said.

Records of individuals who receive food stamps or welfare benefits were not compromised, Lombardo said. The breach did not involve DMV databases, and officials have no evidence that DMV information was taken. That includes vehicle registration information, driver’s license data and personal details from DMV records.

If investigators learn otherwise, they will follow guidelines about personal data breaches and inform the affected individuals, Lombardo said.

Investigations into which data was compromised continue and remain a top priority, according to the governor.

“Please rest assured that we will provide any and all updates on this issue as soon as we are able to,” he said. “We remain committed to transparency, and we remain committed to ensuring that we do not jeopardize the recovery process.”

He said officials continue to work hard around the clock to restore services and go through each database to make sure they were not affected by the attack. The typical recovery time for an attack of this nature can be several weeks to months, Lombardo said. He hopes to see state services fully restored in the next few days.

Key progress is being made in recovery from the cyberattack, especially at the DMV, where beginning Friday, Nevadans can receive their driver’s licenses in person. Some services may still run slower than usual, but operations are back online, Lombardo said.

Health and social service systems have remained available, he said.

“Nevadans can be confident that health coverage, food assistance and other benefits, along with payments, have not stopped during the cyber event,” Lombardo said.

The governor said he could not provide further details on the technical elements of the attack, the identity of the attackers, or information about the nature of the federal investigation.

“I know that’s frustrating, but it’s very important that we have a balance and ensure that we don’t have continuous attacks occur as a result of releasing information before it should be released,” he said.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.