Is Anything In Life Unhackable Anymore? Wyoming Experts Say Nope

Computer hackers who caused millions of dollars worth of food to spoil and threatened hospital blood supplies in Europe are the latest reminder that financial and personal disaster can hit anyone on the planet from anywhere else.

Even in Wyoming, the least-populated state, tech experts say there probably isn't anything in people's everyday lives immune from getting hacked.

That includes your smart refrigerator and other high-tech appliances, like robot sweepers, along with computers, phones, tablets and even watches.

Recent headlines from France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain were accompanied by photos of employees throwing out supermarket goods spoiled when computerized controllers were hacked and temperatures soared.

The latest statistics from the FBI for 2025 show that Wyoming residents and businesses filed 1,552 complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and the state’s reported financial losses totaled $25.8 million.

That's a 520% spike since 2020, when people were taken for a reported $5 million.

The FBI report states that “cyberthreats and cyber-enabled crime will continue to evolve as the world embraces emerging technologies.”

Think artificial intelligence (AI).

University of Wyoming Chief Information Security Officer Matt Kelly agrees that the “Internet of Things” — everything connecting to everything else, and inclusion of computer chips into household refrigerators, kids' toys, and vacuum cleaners opens ordinary daily life to being hacked.

“The price of technology has come down over the years, so it shows up in more products than it really needs to,” he said. “Most people don’t think about, ‘Hey, I should patch my refrigerator, or patch my Furby that I got my kids for Christmas.'”

Patching or upgrading software to fend off the latest computer bugs and viruses is routine for smartphones and computers, but often missed for other devices.

Hackers Get Help

While Wyoming computer and cybersecurity experts say there's potential for anything that can connect to the internet to be hacked, it often happens with human help.

That's what happened in 2019 when a crippling ransomware attack totally shut down Campbell County Health, including Campbell County Memorial Hospital, when an employee clicked on a shady email link.

That one click of a keyboard allowed hackers to lock out the organization's entire 1,500-computer network with threats to delete everything if the hospital didn't pay a ransom. Just what that ransom was, or whether Campbell County Health ever paid it to get its system back, has never been made public.

It took weeks for Campbell County Health to deal with the situation, including having to cancel, reschedule or outsource numerous surgeries that couldn't be done because of equipment compromised by the ransomware attack.

While he agrees that there isn't much anymore in our everyday lives that can't be hacked or taken advantage of by thieves, scammers and malicious pranksters, they are many times unwittingly helped by people, said Hayden Hassinger, a co-owner of Geek Garage in Cheyenne.

"The bottom line is, if you've been hacked, chances are it's because you helped it happen," he told Cowboy State Daily.

"I think a lot of the time, when it comes to AI and things like that, it shows a lot of things are more vulnerable than we would have expected," Hassinger said. "I think what we deal with most is less about the device being hacked and more of the social engineering, like the social hacking that seems to be more prevalent than anything."

That means those annoying and suspect pop-ups, unsolicited emails or text messages that ask you to follow a link somewhere, what that really does is open the door for hackers, he said.

"You have a pop-up ad or something that says 'call this number,' and bang — you've been hacked," he said. "That's kind of the setup to get to them. That's how you get hacked."

In a way, Hassinger said, the chances that you could be your own hacker are pretty high.

"It's turned into this weird dichotomy of people getting access to your devices not because they came in through the back door because you had a virus, but because you let them in and gave them access under false pretenses," he said.

And if you think there's another person on the other end of being hacked, it could be an AI bot doing the phishing and hacking, he added.

Does that mean people need to go back to the 19th century, go off the grid and live like hermits in the Wind River Range to avoid hackers?

"Not at all," said Hassinger, adding the key is not to "give in to the paranoia."

"It's just about awareness," he added. "I don't think people should necessarily be paranoid about something happening, or what if this happens or what if that happens? It doesn't have to be like that.

"It's just being aware that it's out there. If you get a pop-up that says you have a virus and to call this number, that's the telltale sign. I mean, a virus isn't going to tell me to do that. It's just going to be malicious and quiet and do it without you knowing."

The fear of computer viruses is one of the most effective tools for hackers, Hassinger said. That's because everyone is deathly afraid of getting one, but the fact is they're extremely rare unless you allow it yourself.

"In the 10 years I've been at the shop, we've seen maybe three or four times when there's actually been a virus on someone's computer," he said. "It's when people believe they've been compromised — even though they haven't — that they can make it happen without even realizing it."

Exploiting Vulnerabilities

Kelly said while the commercial freezers in Europe had legitimate reasons to be interconnected for monitoring, mistakes allowed hackers to gain access.

At the university, he said devices such as smart freezers for cafeterias and those parts of the Internet of Things are isolated on the network.

In Europe, hackers took advantage of devices that had default usernames and passwords, older software, and a connection to the internet.

In the AI era, it is becoming easier to find vulnerabilities and exploit them, Kelly said.

He points to the federal government’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as working over the past few years to harden the nation's critical infrastructure against threats to water systems, gas transmission, and other key areas.

CISA posted an advisory Thursday urging businesses in the healthcare, chemical, food and agriculture, and the transportation industry to “harden” their IT systems against potential attacks similar to those in Europe.

“I think we are in a better position than we were 10 years ago,” Kelly said. “I think there’s a lot of work left to do in the cybersecurity of the country.”

CyberWyoming Executive Director Laura Baker agrees that the potential for waking up and finding your personal life or business hacked continues to increase in proportion to online activity and device ownership.

The nonprofit she leads specializes in helping microbusinesses such as small legal offices reduce cyber risk and reduce anxiety about tech infrastructure.

It offers cybersecurity training for businesses and puts out a “Hacker’s Brief” newsletter that shares national fraud alerts and phishing schemes circulating through the state.

Events such as the European freezer hack reinforce for small business owners and professionals with small offices how quickly an IT disaster for their operation can occur through an external vendor or somebody in their office clicking a deceiving link.

Helping Small Businesses

“What we do is we allay that worry by focusing on prevention,” Baker said. “We align the tech and cyber with their cybersecurity goals because we help them create it, their goals, and we help them build a program that makes sense for their small business.”

CyberWyoming advises businesses and individuals to pay attention to potential contractor security and privacy pages on websites and they provide an AI assistant to help with the evaluation.

“We give them 12 questions to go through and research and (use) the AI assistant,” Baker said. “They can decide if it meets their risk tolerance.”

An attorney who used the questions opted to get rid of a company providing virtual assistance because of its privacy policy, Baker said.

When Casper-based Hilltop Bank went through its cybersecurity attack, Baker called it a “wake-up call for us all” due to the type of defensive cybersecurity measures mandated for and deployed by financial institutions.

An evaluation of her nonprofit led her to understand that all its assets were in one financial institution and that she needed to ensure they could cover payroll if a hack happened at CyberWyoming. That led to the nonprofit choosing to put a month’s worth of salary and operational funds into an entirely separate institution.

She agrees that any home appliances such as Smart TVs, Xboxes, and doorbell cameras should be isolated on a private network on the home’s Wi-Fi router with a separate password.

“I’m often baffled why people buy these $8,000 refrigerators that tell you when you’re at the grocery store that your milk is low,” she said. “It just punches a hole right through any security you put up because it’s connected and talking to you and who knows who else it is talking to.”

Baker also advises people not to connect the robot vacuum that maps out the house to the internet.

CyberWyoming also has created checklists for people who think they just opened a door to a scammer by providing a Social Security number, Medicare ID, or allowed someone digital access to their computer.

Best Practices

Mauri Larson, Banner Health spokesperson for its West Region, said she could not spare specifics, but the health system pursues and meets “industry best practices and regulatory standards” to ensure that its refrigerators and freezers for vital products are protected.

“We take cybersecurity extremely seriously and have measures in place across all aspects of our operations, including the systems that support critical patient care functions such as pharmacy and blood supply management,” she said.

At the City of Casper, Michael Szewczyk, interim support services director, said the city “puts a lot of effort” into securing all of its data systems and the reality of increasing threats means the need to increase defenses.

He agrees that nearly all city operations and services use computers and computerized technology subject to a potential hack.

“You can take asphalt and put it into the street and patch the street,” he said. “But what about going back and tracking your work order in the computer system or placing the order for the asphalt? … I would venture to say that every aspect of what we do probably has a computer piece to it.”

With AI technology, not only is it being deployed by those who want to exploit vulnerable IT systems, but it also is being used as a cybersecurity tool, he said.

“It is definitely a constant game of chasing and trying to keep up,” Szewczyk said. “You hear that old adage: ‘The bad guys only have to be right once.’ You have to be right every time.”

Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.