‘Foreign Cyberattack’ Hits US City As Local Police Claim Bank Accounts Have Been Hacked: Report

A foreign cyberattack has reportedly hit the city of Columbus, Ohio.

The attack has disrupted various city servers and appears to have compromised data, reports the Colombia Dispatch.

The ransomware group Rhysida says it’s behind the hack, listing a trove of new data for sale on the dark web.

Although officials have released few details on the attack, the Columbus Division of Police First Assistant Chief LaShanna Potts says early signs show significant damage was done.

“We have been impacted significantly by a foreign cyber-attack designed to disrupt the city’s IT infrastructure.

While an encryption attempt was prevented, we do believe some of our data has been accessed. This is still a very fluid investigation.”

Brian Steel, the head of Columbus City’s police union Fraternal Order of Police Capital City Lodge #9, says his crew is being hit with apparent identity theft. An investigation is underway to determine whether it’s connected to the massive city infrastructure breach.

“Some guys are saying, hey, my credit cards got hacked. Some are saying there’s been bank account (issues), I’ve been getting alerts saying someone is trying to open up a line of credit in my name…

Another individual said money was taken out of my bank account that I didn’t take out.”

An earlier report by the same publication said that Rhysida has allegedly stolen over 6.5 terabytes of data from the city’s government in the attack, which was first detected on July 18th.

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