Did the First Amendment get rescinded in Franklin County, Ohio? What the heck is going on there? Bill Bush of The Columbus Dispatch reports:
A Franklin County judge on Thursday granted the city of Columbus a temporary restraining order against a cybersecurity expert who has been telling the media about the public impact of the ransomware attack on city government.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Andria C. Noble approved the temporary restraining order, which bars cybersecurity expert David L. Ross Jr., who goes by “Connor Goodwolf,” “from accessing, and/or downloading, and/or disseminating” any of the files stolen from the city that were posted to the dark web.
The city attorney’s office, however, said Friday that a different judge, Common Pleas Judge Kim Brown, issued the restraining order. The online court docket doesn’t permit the public to see that document, and the file still lists Noble’s name as the judge in the case.
Read more at The Columbus Dispatch.
Read the complaint, which offers the city’s attempt to justify their draconian measures to censor someone refuting the mayor’s claims that the data leaked was “encrypted or corrupted,” and who is demonstrating that the data pose a real risk.
Censoring or barring people from reporting on breaches and data tranches is extremely dangerous as it allows victims to fail to disclose honestly without challenge, or to flat-out lie to the public without being called out publicly.