Columbus, Ohio, is still grappling with a cyberattack that shook the city earlier this summer as questions remain to be answered.
In July, Mayor Andrew Ginther released a statement explaining that the Columbus Department of Technology “found evidence of an abnormality in its system on July 18,” which prompted the city to suspend internet connection to reduce the threat to its systems, as reported by 10TV, a local CBS affiliate in Columbus.
Two weeks later, two officers with the Columbus Division of Police claimed that their bank accounts were hacked and that unspecified amounts of money were taken.
A hacking group later came forward and claimed responsibility for the attack, demanding nearly $2 million in ransom for the data.
At that point, it was believed that only Columbus police officers were affected by the hack, and the two officers filed a lawsuit against the city. The city offered a free credit monitoring service to its affected employees.
A cybersecurity expert later came forward to 10TV claiming that anyone who swiped their driver’s license at city hall in the last decade could have been affected by the hack. He said the leaked data also included anyone who has dealt with the Columbus City Attorney’s Prosecuting Office, which includes anyone from victims to suspects to someone who was subpoenaed by the court or law enforcement officials.
Ginther then offered any Columbus resident access to the credit monitoring system. One day later, the cybersecurity expert’s claims were backed up by the mayor’s office, which announced that “personally identifiable information” was leaked on the dark web. Ginther confirmed that data, including information on criminals, victims of crime, and witnesses from the city prosecutor’s office, was leaked.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The news station later learned that a second city database had been hacked. It included thousands of incident reports from the Columbus Division of Fire and information from people who visited any of the four city buildings, including City Hall, since 2006.
Now, plaintiffs in a second lawsuit representing both city police and firefighters are asking the city to disclose the nature of the compromised information. They are also asking the city to adopt sufficient security practices and safeguards to prevent incidents such as the data breach from happening again.