COLUMBUS, Ohio — A hacker group is demanding nearly $2 million ransom for the data it retrieved from the city of Columbus.
A group called Rhysida is claiming to have 6.5 terabytes of data from the city.
The hacker group has released screen captures of data to prove they have the city's sensitive data. It shows security camera footage and dispatching information, along with tables of employee data they claim to have.
“Rhysidal, as we call them, is a notorious group and they have been active since last year in May. They have around 100 plus victims listed,” said Nanda Harikumar.
Harikumar works for Falcon Feeds, a watchdog group that collects data from these types of threat actors in order to protect its clients.
“From the samples the group has released, it is hard to identify the data that has been leaked from employees' sites, but they claim the employees that are working for the government, that could be a big worry because there could be identifying information,” Harikumar said.
Harikumar says this group is known to target government agencies in the United States.
So far, it appears Columbus police employees' information has been most at risk.
Officers say they are getting reports someone has tried to take out bank loans in their names and they are getting alerts their sensitive information is on the dark web.
“There are a lot of people who want to access this data, so after a few days, I think they have five more days of time, if the ransom is not paid for, they will publish the data,” Harikumar said.
“When you get a ransomware demand, they give you a deadline to pay and if you don't pay, then they start publishing this information on all the dark websites, on public websites and what it does is other cyber criminals access to your information and use it in ways that they probably shouldn't,” said former FBI agent Bret Hood.
Hood says it was a good move for the city to immediately contact the FBI.
They can search the city's infrastructure to find exactly what information has been taken and try to arrest the criminals.
He says these investigations usually take quite a bit of time.
“The difficulty in these cases is sometimes you need the cooperation of foreign governments because if they have a server overseas, you have to access that legally. That can take time. If you expect a quick turnaround in this case, that might not happen. Rest assured, the FBI will not stop working on this case. It may take 2-3 years for resolution,” Hood said.
Many Columbus police officers have closed out their current banking accounts and have asked the city to pay them by paper check instead of direct deposit to secure their new accounts. They have been told the city will not do that, they will only pay them via direct deposit.
A spokesperson for the mayor's office released a statement Thursday evening saying the city is offering Experian credit monitoring for all city, Franklin County Municipal Court Judges and Franklin County Municipal Court Clerk employees receiving paychecks from the city. Employees will receive credit monitoring enrollment instructions directly.
It's unclear if employees who already bought credit monitoring on their own will be reimbursed.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther's office declined an interview and referred 10TV to a past interview with Ginther. They said they could not comment further.