Could Columbus hack put credit ratings in jeopardy?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- It’s an alert no one wants to get: your credit score, taking a big hit overnight. 

Now that fear is something thousands of people in central Ohio share.  

More than two months after Columbus was hit with a massive ransomware attack, potential victims are asking, what comes next? There is no way to know for sure if local people’s information was put on the dark web through the city hack or another leak. 

However, one man reached out to NBC4 Investigates with a chilling story of what can happen if your information is stolen.  

Watch: How Columbus ransomware hack may affect credit scores

"I was actually at work and my phone just went off, and I was like, ‘What the heck?,’" a former Franklin County employee said. He did not want his name used, but he did share it with NBC4 Investigates. He said his credit score dropped 40 points and multiple credit cards he did not authorize were opened in his name. 

"I’ve had perfect credit, you know, payment history and all that stuff, and then it's like, when it's 20 points off your credit, you’re like, ‘What the heck,’” he said. “That’s when I started looking into it.” 

For him, it was a question of what do I do now? NBC4 Investigates took that question to cyber security experts.  

"The credit rating piece, the credit scores are tough," Security Scorecard CISCO Steve Cobb said. 

Cobb has more than 30 years in the cybersecurity world.  

"It means that you've got to contact those areas that credit cards were established in your name and validate who you are, and show they were done fraudulently in order for it to get turned down and taken off, and even then, you may be looking at 30 or 60 days before your credit score is repaired," Cobb said.  

He said that puts consumers in a tough spot and it just gets harder when your social security number is at risk too.  

"That's a federally issued number and the only thing you do there is turn on or invest in something like credit monitoring that watches when that number is used in order to try to start some action or some type of credit or background checks on yourself," Cobb said.   

He said that we hear so often that people’s information has been compromised that many are becoming numb to it. However, it is very important to follow safety steps so threat actors cannot put you or your loved ones at risk. 

For steps on how to freeze and monitor your credit as well as other tips to stay safe here.  

 A local law firm is suing the city as part of a class action suit, saying it has some new fears: they worry the city’s tax record division has taken a hit, calling it a worst-case scenario. 

The city has not said whether those records were compromised. And with our whistleblower silenced, we don’t know either.  

We do know, 15,000 people have signed up for free credit monitoring offered after this hack. You have two more months to sign up. The deadline is Nov. 29.