Washington state court systems taken offline following cyberattack

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Courts across Washington state forced to shut down IT infrastructure
There is no word on the attackers, or type of cyberattack
Not all courts were affected in the same way

Unnamed hackers have attacked court systems across the US state of Washington, forcing the judicial organization to shut down parts of its infrastructure to prevent further damage.

"In an abundance of caution, we proactively took down our systems to secure them and are working around the clock with leading experts to restore services as quickly as possible," AOC associate director Wendy Ferrell told local media.

Washington’s court systems include multiple municipal and district courts, and it seems that not all have been affected in the same manner, or to the same extent. For example, courts in Bainbridge Island, Monroe, Puyallup, Milton, and Thurston County, are operating with limited services.

Limited operation

Pierce County Superior Court Clerk's Office still offers online access, saying the impact on its systems and operations was limited.

"The Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court's Office is experiencing service interruptions due to unauthorized activity detected on the Washington Courts network," the Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court said.

"The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has taken immediate action to secure critical systems and is actively working to safely restore services."

Speaking to the Seattle Times via phone, King County District Court Chief Presiding Judge Rebecca C. Robertson said superior and district courts in King’s County weren’t significantly affected since they operate a separate case management system.

“We are prepared for at least a week,” Robertson said. “To protect the extremely sensitive data, (state officials) decided to shut everything down and rebuild it.”

There is no word on who the attackers are, or what kind of attack this was, however judicial organizations are no strangers to ransomware attacks.

In summer 2024, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest in the United States, suffered a ransomware attack which forced it to close down its entire operation for a day.

Via Seattle Times

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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.