He proved the Columbus data leak hurts the public. Now the city wants to silence him

View the news conference where City Attorney Zach Klein answered questions about his newly filed lawsuit in the video player above.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The cybersecurity expert that came forward with evidence that the Columbus data leak's damage went far beyond Mayor Andrew Ginther's claims there was nothing to worry about, is now facing a legal case from the city.

Franklin County Common Pleas Court records showed City Attorney Zach Klein's office filed a civil lawsuit against Connor Goodwolf on Thursday. The city has already filed an ex parte motion for a temporary restraining order against Goodwolf, meaning a judge could approve it without needing any input from him.

At a 2:45 p.m. news conference, Klein explained his reasoning behind the attempt to shut Goodwolf's work down.

"This is not about freedom of speech, or whistleblowing, this is about the downloading and disclosure of stolen criminal investigatory records," Klein said. "This effect is to get him to stop downloading and disclosing stolen criminal records ... It has gone to the next level to where there is witnesses, potential suspects, undercover officers whose data is out there."

The restraining order request document asks the court to prevent Goodwolf from "accessing, and/or downloading, and/or disseminating the city's data that has been stolen as part of a massive cyberattack of the city's IT system." Judge Andria Noble, presiding over the case, had not granted it yet as of Thursday afternoon.

A complaint document from Klein's office accused Goodwolf of creating "serious public inconvenience and alarm" from showing the damage done when the Rhysida ransomware group leaked three terabytes of stolen data from City of Columbus servers. Hours after Ginther announced publicly that the data stolen by the hackers was "encrypted or corrupted," Goodwolf debunked him, showing NBC4 that personal information like Social Security numbers of residents and city employees alike had been dumped on the dark web.

"From at least Aug. 13, 2024 to the present, Defendant has been contacting media, the entire time the criminal investigation by the city was ongoing, claiming to have access to and disclosing information stolen from the city by the criminal threat actors," attorneys from Klein's office wrote in their complaint.

The city attorney's filing comes the day after Goodwolf discovered the Columbus Division of Police's MatrixCrime database in the leak, which meant undercover officers' names and confidential reports had been exposed by Rhysida. The City of Columbus is facing two separate class-action lawsuits over its handling of the leak, with one coming from an undercover officer concerned his cover had been blown.

The city is asking the court to order Goodwolf to pay damages "greater than $25,000," with the final amount to be determined at a later date. Its claims for relief against the whistleblower included:

• Damages for criminal acts
• Invasion of privacy against the City of Columbus, employees and citizens
• Negligence
• Civil conversion

Franklin County Common Pleas Court scheduled a pretrial conference for Sept. 18, 2025, followed by a trial assignment in October 2025. In the more immediate months, the case will see initial disclosures from both sides, as well as discovery, where they will exchange the evidence they plan to present.

View the city's initially filed complaint against Goodwolf below: