Columbus Department of Technology Director Sam Orth is retiring from the city, nearly two years after a cyber attack exposed the data of thousands of people in Columbus.
Columbus City Council has a resolution on its agenda Monday evening to recognize Orth's service to the city, which is co-sponsored by all nine council members. Orth came under scrutiny two years ago when the cyber criminal group Rhysida hacked the city and released terabytes of data it stole on the dark web.
Columbus was one of many cities, including Cleveland, that was crippled by cyber attacks that year.
After the city initially claimed it thwarted the attack and that the data was unusable, a whistleblower came forward proving that the attack exposed personal information for at least 500,000 people on the dark web.
That same whistleblower, an IT expert named Connor Goodwolf, later criticized Orth for his inability to respond quickly and report accurate information to Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther. Orth also made comments that only criminals use the dark web, which Goodwolf refuted.
The city has since added more safeguards to the system, including implementing a "zero trust network" that makes users of the city's system continuously verify their identities and credentials.
The city demonstrated little internal accountability in the year after the cyber attack. Eight people were either fired, retired or resigned from the Department of Technology since the attack. None of their personnel files indicate the terminations were related to the cyber attack.
Orth was first appointed by Ginther in 2016 and oversaw the city's IT infrastructure for a decade. His work included helping the Columbus Division of Police give every on-duty police officer a body-worn camera.
Orth's city biography said he worked at Apple, the Ohio Education Computer Network and with the Ohio Office of Information Technology.
Orth's last day is Friday, after which Deputy Director Pam O'Grady will take over as interim director.
According to her personnel file, O'Grady, the wife of Franklin County Commissioner John O'Grady, has limited experience in IT compared to Orth, but worked as a government affairs director for former Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and with former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland's administration.
WOSU requested email and text message communications more than a year ago between the mayor and senior officials like Orth and O'Grady who responded to the cyber attack, but the city still hasn't fulfilled the request. The city told WOSU in February the request produced more than 2,200 records, and that the records are still under review.
