Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced the city's Department of Technology will propose cybersecurity investments to Columbus City Council on Monday.
Ginther said in a press release this will authorize $7 million, including $3 million in new funding, to cover costs of the July cyber attack and prepare for future attacks.
Some of the expenses this will help cover include more than $2.4 million for services to limit the extent of the cyber attack and deal with its aftermath. The investment also includes $1.6 million for the Experian credit monitoring the city offered to residents free of charge. There is also more than $2 million for legal counsel and other expenses.
"This budget does not include the long-term investments the City of Columbus will need to make to further protect its technology systems and data from the growing threat of cybercrime. The safety of this community is my top priority, and we will purposefully and intentionally pursue those investments as they are needed," Ginther said.
Ginther said, to date, all of the city's most critical IT systems have been restored, but officials are still working to get all of the systems completely back online.
"Specifically, 72% of the city’s 441 technology systems are fully restored, and another 5% are partially restored. Our goal is to have all systems up and running at peak efficiency by the end of October," Ginther said.
Ginther said there will also be future legislation to cover anticipated legal expenses. The city faces several lawsuits from employees whose sensitive information was leaked.
The city also sued to silence the whistleblower that exposed to the public that the information of hundreds of thousands of private citizens was online.
