Half a million Ohioans have had their personal information stolen after a ransomware attack
- The city of Columbus, Ohio, confirms that it is experiencing a ransomware attack
- About 500,000 citizens were believed to have had private information stolen
- The criminal group Rhysida claims responsibility for the attack
The city of Columbus has confirmed it suffered a ransomware attack that stole sensitive information about hundreds of thousands of residents.
In a breach notification letter sent to affected individuals, the Ohio capital said there was a “cyber security incident” on July 18, 2024, in which a “foreign threat actor” apparently attempted to compromise the IT infrastructure of the to disrupt the city, deploy ransomware and later demand a ransom. .
While the city responded by containing the attack, isolating the threat actors and bringing in outside experts to assess the situation, the crooks managed to get away with sensitive information.
Half a million affected
“The information involved in the incident may have included your personal information, such as your first and last name, date of birth, address, bank account information, driver’s license(s), social security number, and other identifying information about you and/or or your interactions with the City ,” the city of Columbus said in the letter.
At the same time, the facility filed a report with the Maine Attorney General’s Office stating that 500,000 residents of the city were affected, out of a total of approximately 910,000 citizens.
Despite the theft, the organization claims there is no evidence the data has been misused on the dark web. However, there seems to be more to this story than that.
The threat actor behind the attack appears to be Rhysida, after the Eastern European group claimed responsibility in August 2024, claiming it had stolen 6.5 TB from the city, including “databases, internal employee logins and passwords, a complete dump from servers containing city emergency services applications and … access from city video cameras.”.
The gang asked for 30 bitcoin, which was approximately $1.9 million at the time of the attack. It is likely that it did not receive the payment because security researchers found an archive of sensitive data of Ohio residents posted on the dark web.
Via TechCrunch
