Columbus, Ohio, mayor says July cyberattack will ‘cost the city millions’
Over the weekend, Columbus, Ohio, Mayor Andrew Ginther told ABC 6 that a recent cyberattack against could cost the city millions of dollars in restoration and recovery expenses.
The cyberattack, perpetrated by the international hacking group Rhysida, forced the city to shut down much of its technology operations last July.
“We know it will be millions of dollars,” Ginther told ABC 6 in an interview that aired on Sunday. “There’s going to be a significant amount of money towards credit monitoring. A significant amount of money is going towards the investigation.”
A spokesperson from the mayor’s office told StateScoop the city’s incident response has been conducted under an emergency order from Ginther since the breach was identified in July. The order includes an emergency authorization for $4 million, directing “$3 million towards operating costs and $1 million to cover incident response and remediation,” according to the spokesperson.
“An ordinance authorizing this expenditure will be submitted to Columbus City Council in the coming weeks,” the spokesperson told StateScoop in an email on Monday.
ABC 6 also reported that city came to an agreement with Connor Goodwolf, whose legal name is David Leroy Ross, the cybersecurity researcher who shared sensitive city data with the press after Rhysida posted it to the dark web.
Goodwolf’s claims came the day after Mayor Ginther had told the public that the stolen data had been corrupted and likely “unusable,” based on initial findings from the city’s forensic team.
Zach Klein, attorney for the City of Columbus, did not respond to a request for more information about the role Goodwolf will play in the city’s investigation.
