Half a million Ohio citizens have personal data stolen following ransomware attack

Trending 2 weeks ago
Lock connected Laptop Screen
(Image credit: Shutterstock.com) (Image credit: Future)

  • City of Columbus, Ohio, confirms suffering ransomware attack
  • Around 500,000 citizens thought to person had backstage information stolen
  • Rhysida criminal group claims work for attack

The City of Columbus has confirmed suffering a ransomware onslaught successful which delicate accusation connected hundreds of thousands of residents was stolen.

In a breach notification missive sent to affected individuals, Ohio’s superior said it knowledgeable a “cybersecurity incident” connected July 18 2024 which apparently saw a “foreign threat actor” effort to disrupt nan city’s IT infrastructure, deploy ransomware, and later solicit a ransom payment.

While nan metropolis responded by containing nan attack, isolating nan threat actors, and bringing successful third-party experts to measure nan situation, nan crooks managed to get distant pinch delicate information.

Half a cardinal affected

“The accusation progressive successful nan incident whitethorn person included your individual information, specified arsenic your first and past name, day of birth, address, slope relationship information, driver’s license(s), Social Security number, and different identifying accusation concerning you and/or your interactions pinch nan City,” nan City of Columbus said successful nan letter.

At nan aforesaid time, nan institution revenge a study pinch nan Office of nan Maine Attorney General successful which it stated that 500,000 of nan city’s residents were affected, retired of a full of astir 910,000 citizens.

Despite nan theft, nan statement claims location is nary grounds nan information was misused connected nan acheronian web. However, location seems to beryllium much to this communicative than that.

The threat character down nan onslaught seems to beryllium Rhysida, aft nan eastbound European group claimed work successful August 2024, claiming it stole 6.5 TB from nan city, including “databases, soul logins and passwords of employees, a afloat dump of servers pinch emergency services applications of nan metropolis and … entree from metropolis video cameras.".

Sign up to nan TechRadar Pro newsletter to get each nan apical news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed!

The pack asked for 30 bitcoin, which was astir $1.9 cardinal astatine nan clip of nan attack. It is apt it did not person nan payment, since information researchers recovered an archive containing Ohio residents’ delicate data, posted connected nan acheronian web.

Via TechCrunch

More from TechRadar Pro

  • Data breached astatine LA Housing Authority aft ransomware attack
  • Here's a database of nan best firewalls today
  • These are nan best endpoint protection tools correct now

Sead is simply a seasoned freelance journalist based successful Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes astir IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, information breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning much than a decade, he’s written for galore media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s besides held respective modules connected contented penning for Represent Communications.

More
Source Technology
Technology