COLUMBUS, Ohio — The cyberattack on the city of Columbus has left its damage, but Columbus isn’t alone in experiencing a cyberattack.
How much could the hack cost the city of Columbus and taxpayers?
Bob Carver, a cybersecurity expert and CEO of cybersecurity boardroom said the average cost of a cyber hack is $4.88 million. That number comes from IBM’s most recent report of a data breach for 2024.
“It’s a difficult time for any city or municipality to go through,” said Carver.
So far, the city of Columbus has been sued by Columbus police, firefighters and citizens.
The city hired Dinsmore, a law firm to handle its legal battle in this. 13,000 people have singed up for the city’s free Experian for those affected. Finally, Mayor Andrew Ginther has repeatedly said people are working overtime to resolve the issue.
Those factors, plus restoration could cost the city, a lot of money. Carver said the city of Dallas was hacked a couple years ago and had to pay a lot.
“They (Dallas officials) had to go to the city council and say ‘Hey, we need $8.5 million to fully restore these systems’,” said Carver. “A lot of the people that are going to be involved are going to be expensive."
At Monday night’s city council meeting, Sam Orth, from the Department of Technology said 70% of the Columbus’ systems have been restored. Carver said that’s a complicated and pricey process.
“Once you get into the restoration, it depends on do they have good backups that haven’t been destroyed by attackers or cyber attackers? Do they have other systems?” said Carver.
Carver thinks the city will have to re-evaluate what data it stores and does not.
“Someone is going to have to review that data to see what data they do have, and you know in the future, possibly not restore the data or purge that data,” said Carver.
When asked the city if it needs to spend money on the hack, where would that money come from? A spokesperson for the mayor’s office that it would come from the general fund and need to be approved by city council.