Las Vegas Sands websites restored about a week after hacking

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas Sands Corp., owners of the Venetian and Palazzo on the Strip, has restored its websites about a week after they were apparently taken over by hackers.

The Las Vegas-based gaming company pulled down the sites, including Internet portals to the company’s Strip resorts, on Feb 13. Visitors to the websites were told that the sites were undergoing maintenance.

Ron Reese, a Las Vegas Sands spokesman, said the sites were restored early Monday. The company first became aware of the hacking on Feb. 12 when the company email went down.

Reese declined comment on whether the company’s U.S. internal systems were also operating again. The Nevada Gaming Control Board and FBI are investigating the hacking.

The hackers defaced the sites with images condemning CEO Sheldon Adelson for comments he mde last fall at Yeshiva University in New York about using nuclear weapons on Iran. The incident not only affected Las Vegas Sands’ corporate site and Strip properties, but sites for casinos in China, Singapore and Bethlehem, Pa.