Its prey is a lean, for-profit company with a small security team.Ĭlapper told senators that hackers in Iran and North Korea pose less of a threat than China and Russia. A government is a predator with billions of dollars at its disposal to amass a formidable cyber army. And most recently, leaked documents show American and British spies hacked a phone SIM card maker in the Netherlands.Ĭomputer security experts widely agree that companies aren't prepared to handle this threat. Russian hackers have broken into American and European oil and gas companies. If Clapper's assertion is true, this is the latest example of a frightening trend: governments are hacking private companies.Ĭhinese hacker spies have stolen business plans from U.S. And in the past, Adelson has casually suggested that the U.S. He's staunchly pro-Israel, the ultimate foe of the current Iranian regime. Of all targets, why Adelson's company? The businessman is a major donor to Republican politicians. However, the company thinks hackers broke into its casino in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and 'certain company data may have been destroyed,' according to documents it filed Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Las Vegas Sands declined to comment for this story. It's unknown what damage Iranian hackers did to the casino company. In that case, hackers wiped computers, destroyed data and froze the company to a halt. On Thursday, Clapper described it as a 'destructive cyberattack' on par with North Korea's hack of Sony.

Sands casino hack