Hackers Cause $40m Worth Of Damage To Las Vegas Sands
December 12, 2014 4:39 pmLas Vegas Sands (LVS) CEO Sheldon Adelson may be known for his outspoken and extreme views on a range of issues, including online poker, but when he suggested last year that an atomic bomb could be dropped on Iran’s capital city of 8.3 million people, the octogenarian was soon made to pay for his ill-conceived thoughts.
Adelson first made his startling comment in October 2013 while attending a panel discussion at the Yeshiva University’s Manhattan campus entitled “Will Jews Exist?” When asked how he would consider tackling the Iranian nuclear program stand-off, the casino magnate had these choice words to say:
“You pick up your cell phone and you call somewhere in Nebraska and you say, ‘OK let it go.’ And so there’s an atomic weapon, goes over ballistic missiles, the middle of the desert, that doesn’t hurt a soul. Maybe a couple of rattlesnakes, and scorpions, or whatever. Then you say, ‘See! The next one is in the middle of Tehran. So, we mean business. You want to be wiped out? Go ahead and take a tough position and continue with your nuclear development.”
Not surprisingly, Adelson’s comments soon sparked outrage in Iran, and on February 10th the Las Vegas Sands Corp was targeted for retaliation by who are believed to be Iranian hackers. The groups attack subsequently shut down security systems, computers, and emails at the company’s offices, while on the casino floors of the Venetian and the Palazzo security staff scrambled to unplug network cords from every computer still working. If there was any doubt why the Las Vegas Sands had been targeted, suspicions were quickly confirmed the following day when websites were hacked, and the following messages displayed:
“Encouraging the use of Weapons of Mass Destruction, UNDER ANY CONDITION, is a Crime, signed, the Anti WMD Team,” and “Damn A, Don’t let your tongue cut your throat.”
With around two-thirds of the company’s servers taken out, the estimated cost of the cyber-attack is said to be above $40 million. Interestingly, soon after Adelson made his offensive comment last year, a Sands spokesman Ron Reese explained that Adelson had simply been “using hyperbole to make a point that.. actions speak louder than words.”