The city of Columbus announced it will now offer credit monitoring to all city residents and other impacted individuals after a ransomware attack.
The offer through Experian includes two years of free monitoring, which covers up to $1 million of protection against fraud and identity theft.
The city initially only offered this service to current and former employees. Then it was revealed that the hack also impacted everyday residents' information.
Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement that he strongly urges residents to sign up.
“I’m angry and concerned that the city and our residents are victims of this cyberattack," Ginther said. "My priority is to do everything we can to protect the residents of our city."
The city did not say how it expects to cover the cost of credit monitoring for hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Residents can click here to sign up or call 1-833-918-5161 with the code B129833 by Nov. 29.
“While this criminal attack on our city’s IT infrastructure is a complex and rapidly changing situation, we will continue to provide information as quickly and as transparently as possible as this investigation continues," Ginther said. "Our understanding of this situation has evolved by the hour, and as such, we will continue to report only what our cybersecurity experts and IT team are able to verify without undermining this active criminal investigation.”
The city said it is still investigating the case with cybersecurity experts and the FBI.
