Ohio Auditor Takes Server Offline After Cyberattack

Ohio Auditor Keith Faber said his office’s web server was attacked on 25 October by “overseas cybercriminals and potentially foreign state actors”. His office detected and quarantined the threat using threat-monitoring services already in place, then took the server and online accounts offline while internal and external experts examined the activity.

Faber said there was no reason to believe the attack put Ohioans’ personal financial information at risk, or exposed financial information held by county, city, village or school district governments. He said the office does not usually deal directly with individual residents and does not expect Ohioans to need to take protective action. The office’s work is continuing while it develops a temporary web platform; the permanent server remains offline.