Largest US trial court forced to shut down following ransomware attack

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Identity of Superior Court of Los Angeles County attackers is not yet known

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(Image credit: Avast)

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest in the United States, has suffered a ransomware attack which forced it to close down its entire operation for a day.

A statement posted on the court’s website stated all 36 courthouse locations, as well as external systems like the MyJuryDuty Portal, were shut down as its IT teams worked on removing the ransomware from the system and restoring the infrastructure.

"With many of the Court's network systems still inaccessible as of Sunday evening, the Court will close tomorrow in order to provide one additional day to get essential networks back online," an initial update said.

A subsequent update added that operations will resume, but that hiccups should be expected:

“As a result of the tireless work of court staff and security experts, the Court will reopen all 36 courthouses on July 23. Court users should expect delays and potential impacts due to limits in functionality,” the update reads.

The attack was first spotted in the early hours of Friday, July 19, the court said. It added that the attack was not related to the CrowdStrike update fiasco, and that there was no evidence of any data compromise.

Whether that changes in the future remains to be seen. At press time, no ransomware operators, or affiliates, assumed responsibility for the attack. However, most ransomware groups these days run double-extortion campaigns, which include exfiltrating sensitive data from compromised systems, and then threatening to release the data online unless a payment is made. That makes sensitive data not being compromised very unlikely.

The Los Angeles Superior Court is the largest trial court in the United States, BleepingComputer reports, with more than 4,800 employees, and 41 court facilities in 26 cities across the County of Los Angeles.

Via BleepingComputer

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Sead Fadilpašić

Sead is a seasoned freelance journalist based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He writes about IT (cloud, IoT, 5G, VPN) and cybersecurity (ransomware, data breaches, laws and regulations). In his career, spanning more than a decade, he’s written for numerous media outlets, including Al Jazeera Balkans. He’s also held several modules on content writing for Represent Communications.