Ohio Weekly News Recap: The Columbus Dispatch’s Top Stories
Here are some stories you may have missed on Dispatch.com and in the print edition of the Columbus Dispatch.
A group of anonymous Columbus police officers and a firefighter have filed the second lawsuit against the city, claiming their personal information was stolen and some suffered financial losses because bank accounts and credit cards were hacked after the city fell victim to a ransomware attack.
City officials hope the lawsuit will become a class action lawsuit in which thousands of city employees could participate and seek damages from taxpayers.
In addition to seeking monetary damages, the lawsuit also requests that the court compel Mayor Andrew J. Ginther to “make detailed and specific disclosures about what types of (personal information files) were compromised,” a reference to the ongoing secrecy exercised by the entire city government regarding the cyber hacking attack reported on July 18.
The lawsuit cited some of Ginther’s public statements about the incident, including that the cybercriminals’ attempt to encrypt city data was “thwarted” and that the stolen data was “corrupted or likely unusable.” Both statements downplayed the severity of the attack.
And the lawsuit details the problems the employees faced – problems that, as Ginther warned last weekend, could now affect every Columbus resident.
One of the John Doe police officers’ bank account was “broken and over a thousand dollars was fraudulently withdrawn from his account,” the lawsuit states. Another officer was found to have “someone attempt to make fraudulent online purchases using her credit card that was linked to her online account.”
Another police officer “discovered fraudulent transactions from his bank account,” and another noted that “unknown persons were trying to take out loans in his name.”
“Plaintiffs were forced to spend significant amounts of time responding to alerts and notifications of activity related to the ransomware attack,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiffs also suffered increased stress and anxiety as a direct result of the financial uncertainty caused by the ransomware attack.”
“These incidents are a direct result of the city’s inadequate efforts to protect the (personal information) in its possession,” and almost all of them occurred before “Ginther’s false claim” that the stolen data was worthless.
A spokesman for the mayor declined to comment on the latest lawsuit Tuesday afternoon.
The lawsuit is the second one police officers have filed against the city over the data theft. The first lawsuit involved, in part, an undercover police officer who claims that the data theft poses a risk of his identity being exposed, which could jeopardize the city police investigation and potentially endanger his life and that of his family members.
Answering questions from the press Saturday morning, Ginther said he expects the extent of the problems to get worse before they get better. The city has purchased credit monitoring and identity theft insurance for all city residents and anyone who has interacted with the city in a way that has resulted in personal information being recorded, such as speeding or parking tickets, paying utility bills or attending court appearances.
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Capitol City Lodge No. 9, could not immediately be reached for comment on the latest lawsuit.
@ReporterBush
