Live in Nevada? Study Suggests Your Online Data Isn’t Safe

Posted on: January 31, 2025, 11:50h. 

Last updated on: February 4, 2025, 01:51h.

A new study finds that people living in Nevada are at the highest risk of having their online personal data compromised.

Nevada cybersecurity cyberattack data breach
When it comes to cybersecurity, new research suggests Nevadans are at heightened risk of having their data seized. Nevada is the seventh-riskiest state for data privacy, researchers say. (Image: Shutterstock)

DesignRush, a business-to-business marketplace connecting advertising and marketing agencies with clients seeking web design, digital marketing, search engine optimization, and social media services, commemorated Data Privacy Day 2025 on January 28 with a comprehensive study into which states are best protected in today’s digital world.

The DesignRush study ranked all 50 US states based on how well they protect residents’ data. Nevada, home to the richest casino market in the country with untold volumes of critical data about gamblers and their spending, came out near the bottom.

The Silver State ranked No. 44 with a data safety score of 77.64/100. Nevada’s score of 77.64 reflects the state’s “extremely high cybercrime rate,” researchers said.

Nevada’s cybercrime rate of nearly 308 incidents per 100K people is more than three times the national median. The rate is the highest in the country.

The cybercrime rate, DesignRush explained, measures the number of online crimes like identity theft, fraud, and personal data breaches per 100K residents. Lower rates indicate stronger defenses against cyber threats.

Nevada Cybercrime

With its many casinos and licensed gaming facilities — 310 facilities with slot machines as of December 2024 — cybercriminals continue to target businesses in Nevada. The cyberattacks often prey on customer and employee data, information that bad actors sometimes sell on the black market via the dark web should ransoms not be paid.

The DesignRush probe used data supplied by the FBI’s Internet Crime Report and IT Governance USA to compile its rankings and statistics. IT Governance is a NYC-based provider of IT governance, risk management, and compliance services.

Along with an extremely high cybercrime rate, Nevada reported “moderate data breaches” at 0.25 per 100K people. Data breaches consist of government and public data leaks, with rates adjusted for population.

The only place in which Nevada scored well in the DesignRush report was for its data protection laws. Each state was scored from one to six based on the comprehensiveness of its data privacy laws. Nevada was given five points for having a “narrow law enacted.”

Final grades were tallied by weighting cybercrime per capita and data breaches per capita at 70%, and data protection laws accounting for 30%. Nevada’s overall data safety score was better than just six states — South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, Massachusetts, Alaska, and South Dakota.

Casino Security Compromised

The list of recent cyberattacks on casinos in Nevada is lengthy, but no story garnered more headlines than the massive September 2023 assault on the IT systems of MGM Resorts and Caesars International.

MGM refused to pay a ransom, which resulted in severe disruptions to its US operations. MGM later reported that the cyberevent, which was conducted through so-called “social engineering” where a rogue person manipulates an employee to gain illegal access to a computer network, cost the Bellagio operator more than $100 million.

Caesars decided to pay a $15 million ransom to have its systems quickly restored.