Superdome management company staff computers hacked

Oct. 26, 2020
Attacks causes little disruption to operations of ASM Global

Oct. 24—The company running the Mercedes-Benz Superdome had its computers hacked by cybercriminals last weekend, though the event appears to have caused little disruption.

ASM Global, which operates the Superdome, the Smoothie King Center and the minor league baseball stadium in Metairie, confirmed the attack Friday but said that there was no evidence so far that the breach was related to a series of others by cybercriminals at various Louisiana government offices in recent weeks, as reported by Reuters News.

"Our situation over the past weekend appears to have been isolated to ASM in New Orleans, and we have found no evidence of a connection to the cyberattack with the Louisiana National Guard," said Mike Hoss, ASM Global spokesman, referring to Reuters' report that the Louisiana National Guard was called in to investigate the attacks at small governmental offices.

Cyber experts said the criminals published online some contracts alleged to have been accessed from the ASM Global computers, including old contracts for Bryan Adams and ZZ Top concerts.

The latest cyberattacks follow breaches earlier this year, including one on New Orleans' City Hall in January when it was hit by "ransomware" attacks costing millions of dollars to recover lost data and replace compromised hardware and software. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center also had its computers locked by cybercriminals, though the event was less costly than for the city government as it was quickly contained and the center was fully insured for the disruption.

Hoss said the damage at the Superdome was minimal.

"This was an internal event handled by our team over the weekend and caused minimal interruption to our operation," Hoss said.

"We have found no negative impact on our employees, customers, or sports teams/tenants, and we are not aware of any personal data that has been lost or compromised," he added. "Everything is backed up and has been retrieved. We have substantial protection from these kinds of things, but unfortunately, cybercriminals are persistent and can still penetrate."

Brett Callow, a threat analyst at Emsisoft, a cybersecurity firm, said it can usually take many weeks to discover the full impact of a cyber breach.

"The process can take days or weeks; the average is 56 days," Callow said. "It's when the files start being encrypted that the company realizes it has a problem and they usually start encrypting files at the weekend when there's less chance of IT staff being around to notice and start unplugging machines."

ASM is preparing to welcome a large contingent of fans back to the Superdome this weekend, the first time since the pandemic that anything other than a small group of family and friends will be allowed to attend.

After talks with the New Orleans Saints and ASM, Mayor LaToya Cantrell agreed to allow 3,000 fans for Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers then phase in larger crowds for the remaining four home games if all goes well.

John Simerman contributed to this report.

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