COLUMBUS, Ohio — City employees say they are frustrated with how Columbus officials have handled the cyberattack that resulted in residents' private information being posted on the dark web.
“It's very frustrating," said an officer with the Columbus Division of Police. "It's sad after someone works their whole career for the city and they are kind of left out to dry."
10TV is not identifying the officer because they are not authorized to talk on-camera.
“I'm definitely nervous that someone is going to drain our bank accounts. We won't have notification of that until it happens,” the officer said.
The officer said that they know some officers who had small purchases taken out and another officer who had money taken straight from his bank account.
The hacker group Rhysida claimed to have hacked into the city's system and stole 6.5 terabytes of data. They claim to have posted about 45% of that information on the dark web.
In that leaked data is sensitive personal information for employees and Columbus residents.
“We are constantly having to check our bank accounts and our credit statements, credit card statements to see if there are any unauthorized purchases,” the officer said.
As soon as this officer heard about the cyberattack, they took precautions to protect their accounts and froze their credit.
This officer said they wish the city would have stepped up sooner to protect both employees and residents.
“Be honest, offer to reimburse us. Most of us are cheap and would love to hear they will pay for your subscription to Lifelock or whatever the personal officer chose. Just have our back and be honest,” they said.
10TV reached out to the mayor’s office for an interview today but were told Mayor Andrew Ginther is at the Democratic National Convention.