Columbus remains entangled in a tense standoff with the hacker group Rhysida, which has extended its deadline for a 30 bitcoin ransom, approximately $1.7 million, after failing to finalize an auction for the city's stolen data. NBC4 reported that cybersecurity experts verified the hackers' dark website had indeed closed an auction without a bidder yesterday morning. However, Rhysida altered course and set a new deadline, seemingly planning to leak the vast data haul publically, which includes 6.5 terabytes of sensitive data, enough to fill over 42 million document pages.

Despite assertions by the cybercriminals claiming they have released nearly half of the compromised data, Mayor Andrew Ginther's office has stated that there is no evidence to support that any data has been published. A local IT expert, Daniel Maldet of CMIT Solutions, informed The Dispatch, "It did show when I looked this morning that it had not sold," elaborating on the group's apparent readiness to make the information public after the aborted sale.

In what appears to be a tactic to compel the city to negotiate, Rhysida has threatened to release more data if their demands are unmet by this morning. Nanda Harikumar from Falcon Feeds, a hacker watchdog group, expressed skepticism regarding the group's claims of data leakage. "Today they claim that 45% of the data has been leaked, but it is a fake claim," Harikumar stated in a conversation with WBNS, citing failed attempts to access the purportedly leaked data.

Meanwhile, the City of Columbus has taken the precautionary measure of disconnecting its systems from the internet to prevent further data breaches. This move, decided by Mayor Ginther on July 18, has since compromised city services.