Overview
An ongoing investigation by the City of Columbus has found that a cyber threat actor attempted to disrupt the city’s IT infrastructure, in a possible effort to deploy ransomware and solicit a ransom payment from the city. The city’s Department of Technology quickly identified the threat and took action to significantly limit potential exposure, which included severing internet connectivity. While an encryption attempt was prevented, some city data was accessed by the threat actor.
Experian Credit Monitoring
To further protect the community, the City of Columbus is offering free Experian credit monitoring to all employees, former employees, residents and affected individuals. These individuals are encouraged to sign up for two years of free Experian monitoring, which includes $1 million worth of protection against fraud and identity theft.
Enroll: Former Employees
Enroll: Residents and Other Affected Individuals
Or you may call 1-833-918-5161 with the code B129833 by November 29th. Service begins upon enrollment.
Additional resources on how to protect your information and identity include:
Helpful Tips
You are also encouraged to be cautious of potential scams and identity theft. Ways you can protect yourself include:
- Do not give out your personal information unsolicited over the phone, email or by text.
- Delete texts from numbers you don’t recognize.
- Do not reply to emails that ask you for money and do not click on links in emails you don’t recognize.
- Use different passwords for your different personal accounts.
- Monitor your bank and credit card statements for unauthorized use, and if you see anything, notify law enforcement and the credit bureaus.
- Obtain a free copy of your credit report by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com, or calling 1-877-322-8228.
As a precautionary measure, you can freeze your credit with all three bureaus: Equifax (1-800-349-9960), Experian (888-397-3742) and TransUnion (888-909-8872).