Who was running Columbus’ tech department during the ransomware attack?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — NBC4 is learning more about the people in charge at Columbus’ Department of Technology.

This comes after the city took legal action against cybersecurity expert Connor Goodwolf , who helped NBC4 Investigates uncover that thousands of people were impacted by the city’s data breach after the mayor said the opposite .

The legal move to silence the whistleblower didn’t sit well with NBC4’s viewers, with one leaving a voicemail saying, “The city should not be going after Connor Goodwolf. What they need to be doing is going after whoever they have as a computer person who’s supposed to protect our citizens and protecting the police.”

The city has not made anyone from the Department of Technology available to talk about the attack. But NBC4 Investigates still looked into who runs the department.

The city’s Department of Technology is made up of more than 180 employees. It’s led by Director Sam Orth and two deputy directors: Pam O’Grady and Rick Wagner. NBC4 requested the personnel files for all three, looked through their LinkedIn profiles and at information from the Buckeye Institute, a think tank that reports city employees’ salaries among many other things.

Department of Technology Director Sam Orth was hired in July 2016 with a salary of more than $150,000 per year, and is paid close to $190,000 per year as of 2022 according to the Buckeye Institute. His LinkedIn profile showed before he came to the city, Orth was the Chief Technology Officer for an association that provides IT services to more than 900 school districts.
He also has experience in IT on the state level and in education technology.

Orth is a Buckeye, and received a Bachelor’s Degree from OSU in 1994, writing on LinkedIn: “effective triple major in business management and marketing, industrial/organizational psychology and organizational communication.”

Orth also took part in the city’s legal actions against cybersecurity expert Connor Goodwolf. He filed an affidavit in support of the city’s restraining order to stop Goodwolf from accessing and downloading the city data that was stolen.

“Only individuals willing to themselves navigate and interact with the criminal element on the dark web, who also have the computer expertise and tools necessary to download data from the dark web, would be able to do so,” Orth wrote in testimony.

This is something multiple experts have disputed, with a representative from the Electronic Frontier Foundation telling NBC4 that it’s not true.

“It doesn’t take any sophistication or vast technical knowledge to access that,” said Aaron Mackey, EFF’s free speech and transparency litigation director. “You can actually use a Google search to download a browser called Tor, which stands for ‘the onion router,’ and it allows you to actually access a lot of this material online. So it’s as sophisticated as downloading an app on your phone.”

Wagner, one of Orth’s deputy directors, oversees operations including data and mapping, applications, infrastructure and network. Wagner was hired in 2017 and received a raise in 2019 to just over $150,000 a year. As of 2022, the Buckeye Institute lists his salary at just over $165,000 a year.

Wagner spent almost 12 years at the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation, working with data and technology infrastructure. He is also a Buckeye, not only working at OSU as a systems manager and developer/engineer, but also earning a Bachelor of Science and a master’s degree in computer science and engineering.

Deputy Director Pam O’Grady has had a two-decade career with the city. In her role with the Department of Technology, she oversees planning and governance, including account and project management. She was hired into the Department of Technology in 2017 and came from Mayor Andrew Ginther’s office as a senior executive assistant.

Her file says she was hired at just under $150,000 a year. Now the Buckeye Institute lists her annual salary in 2022 at almost $175,000. Unlike the other two directors, her background does not appear to include technology. Her LinkedIn profile lists her former jobs with the city including an assistant director of policy in the mayor’s office, assistant director in the department of public utilities and over a year in Ginther’s office. She received a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Transylvania University.

NBC4 reached out to the city multiple times asking for interviews with the leaders of the department of technology to ask about how their department is run and their expertise in the field, including dealing with cyber-attacks. We were told they were not available.

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