Columbus Mayor Andrew J. Ginther said Saturday during a media briefing that people should expect more bad news in the coming days and weeks about the ransomware attack resulting in reams of data and personal information about city employees and private citizens leaked onto the dark web.
The press conference marked the first time the mayor publicly acknowledged that private citizens’ data was included in the massive data breach that likely compromised a half-million Columbus residents, putting their finances at risk.
Ginther said Saturday he hasn’t yet reviewed a single written report from IT professionals investigating the incident.
The mayor also declined to say who is giving him the technical evaluations that have repeatedly turned out to be false or, at minimum, an underestimation of the damage done. He also couldn’t explain why it took him four days to initially acknowledge that anything unusual had occurred except to say they were investigating the extent of the incident.
The press conference comes days after a local cybersecurity expert contradicted many of Ginther’s earlier assurances about the nature of the data stolen by a group known for attacking municipal governments and institutions that lacked appropriate IT security.