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A cyber security researcher is facing potential legal consequences after he was accused of illegally downloading data stolen in a cyber attack and sharing it with media.
In July, the city of Columbus, Ohio, was hit by a ransomware attack by the Rhysida ransomware group.
The incident resulted in system outages across email and other resources for public agencies.
While the city believes no data was encrypted, Rhysida claimed to have stolen 6.5 terabytes of data, 45 per cent of which (260,000 files over 3.1 terabytes) was published when the city refused to pay the ransom.
Initially, Columbus mayor Andrew Ginther said the data leaked was of no value and that the attack had not been effective.
However, cyber researcher David Leroy Ross, better known as Connor Goodwolf, called out the mayor, accusing him of a false claim, and shared with the media what the leak included.
When Ginther responded saying the data was unusable as it was “encrypted or corrupted”, Goodwolf then shared samples with the media to prove that the data was unencrypted.
This data included Social Security numbers of police and criminals, names from domestic violence cases, and other personal information.
Columbus then submitted a lawsuit against Goodwolf, saying that the sharing of stolen data was illegal and careless and that the data was inaccessible by the majority of people, as it was published on a platform that required expertise to access.
The lawsuit aims to have a temporary restraining order placed on Goodwolf, as well as a preliminary injunction, a primary injunction and damages of over US$25,000.
So far, the temporary restraining order is the only thing that has been issued, preventing Goodwolf from accessing, downloading or sharing the data further. All data downloaded so far must also be preserved.
Goodwolf is still allowed to talk about the leak, according to City Attorney Zach Klein, who added the lawsuit is not about suppressing free speech, but preventing the further spread of data.
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