COLUMBUS, Ohio — Eric Stoddard worked for the Columbus Division of Police for 25 years and routinely meets with his fellow retired officers for breakfast. When the news broke about the cyberattack on the city of Columbus, it was the topic of discussion at breakfast.
“I asked, 'Does anyone know if this applies to retired officers also?' I got a resounding answer of yes. I said, 'Is the city planning on doing anything for us?' And I was told not until they are forced to,” said Stoddard.
The city of Columbus is offering free Experian for two years for anyone who may be affected by the hack.
Stoddard said he immediately contacted Experian and the other credit bureaus to monitor his credit. Then, he went to his bank.
“Just this last week I was at my bank transferring money to a dormant account to get out of my active account because that might be available now [on the dark web]. I mentioned that to one of the bankers who said several other Columbus police officers had been in that week,” said Stoddard.
His next thought was the sensitivity of the information he and his fellow officers collected on a daily basis.
“There were a lot of sensitive things. I worked the east side overnight shift for most of the 1990s and I took a lot of reports from the victims who would not want to have their information out there. They were not available to the public on reports anyway,” said Stoddard.
He said the silence from the city has been telling. But it didn’t surprise him.
“Not surprised. I know right now nothing coming out of CPD headquarters is available to the public without the permission of city hall,” he said. “My own gut feeling is most it would have never come out if it was just coming from city hall. That information would have never been made public,” Stoddard added.
10TV reached out to Mayor Ginther's office for a comment.
A representative for the mayor's office said, “Our top priority is protecting our residents - and the most effective thing they can do right now to protect themselves is to sign up for the free Experian coverage the city is offering by going to columbus.gov/cyber.
Please always be on the lookout for potential scams and identity theft. Ways you can protect yourself include:
- Do not give out your personal information unsolicited over the phone, email or by text.
- Delete texts from numbers you don’t recognize.
- Do not reply to emails that ask you for money and do not click on links in emails you don’t recognize.
- Use different passwords for your different personal accounts.
- Monitor your bank and credit card statements for unauthorized use, and if you see anything, notify law enforcement and the credit bureaus.
- Obtain a free copy of your credit report by visiting annualcreditreport.com, or calling 1-877-322-8228.