Report lists Las Vegas as city most-vulnerable to cyber attacks
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Cybersecurity firm Coronet has released a 2019 report of which cities have businesses that are vulnerable to cyber attacks, and Las Vegas has reached the top of its list for the second year in a row.
"Once again, the use of public Wi-Fi in hotels, restaurants and casinos, combined with the State of Nevada’s vastly underfunded cybersecurity budget, help propel Las Vegas to the distinction as America’s most cyber insecure city," the report said.
The report was created by analyzing 1 million devices and 24 million public and private networks across America's 50 largest cities, searching for vulnerabilities against things such as phishing attacks, malware, malicious Wi-Fi, and fake cellular networks. These vulnerabilities, the report said, opens businesses up to data loss, credential theft and ransomware.
"Most insecure devices are an easy target for attackers seeking to compromise or exfiltrate personal and business information and use it to their advantage," the report said.
According to report, Las Vegas businesses are three times more likely than average to not have updated anti-virus, and three times more likely to access cloud apps (such as Gmail, Office 365 or Dropbox) from both medium- and high-risk networks. These rates put Las Vegas above Houston and New York, the second- and third-most vulnerable cities.
Salt Lake City, on the other hand, is ranked as the least-vulnerable city.
The complete rankings of the 50 largest U.S. cities is below:
- Las Vegas
- Houston
- New York
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale
- Harrisburg-Lancaster-Lebanon-York
- West Palm Beach-Ft Pierce
- Hartford-New Haven
- Birmingham
- Indianapolis
- Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto
- Baltimore
- Los Angeles
- Charlotte
- Memphis
- Portland
- Raleigh-Durham
- Washington, DC-Hagrstwn
- Chicago
- Philadelphia
- Jacksonville
- Tampa-St Petersburg-Sarasota
- Boston
- Pittsburgh
- San Diego
- New Orleans
- Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne
- Denver
- Dallas-Fort Worth
- Milwaukee
- Louisville
- Minneapolis-Saint Paul
- Norfolk-Portsmouth-Newport News
- Nashville
- Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem
- Detroit
- Grand Rapids-Kalamazoo-Battle Creek
- San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose
- Greenville-Spartanburg-Asheville
- Kansas City
- Atlanta
- Cleveland-Akron
- Columbus, OH
- Cincinnati
- Oklahoma City
- Phoenix
- Albuquerque-Santa Fe
- Austin
- Seattle-Tacoma
- Saint Louis
- Salt Lake City
Coronet suggests that businesses conduct a risk assessment , take part in security awareness training, update their operating systems, strengthen their passwords, use two-factor authentication, and create an incident response plan.
The full report can be read on Coro.net.
