Pennsylvania State Courts Dealing With Cyberattack

Pennsylvania’s court system was hit with a cyberattack on Sunday that shut down access to key online services including those used to file documents with appellate courts and guardianship reports, as well as to view dockets and court summaries on the web.

The court first reported the disruption at 10:08 pm Sunday.

As of 5:20 pm Monday evening, those portions of the website had been restored. However, at about 10:30 am Tuesday morning, those sections were down again, the court reported.

Court officials stressed that there is no indication that any court data has been compromised and the courts themselves remain open to the public.

Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd reported Monday afternoon that officials had detected what they identified as a denial of service cyberattack. According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), a denial of service cyberattack occurs when malicious actors flood the targeted host or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or simply crashes, preventing access for legitimate users.

Todd said the court information technology and executive teams are working with law enforcement including the CISA, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I to investigate the incident.

Pennsylvania Counties Still Restoring Systems After Cyber Incidents

This cyber incident at the state level comes about two weeks after a cyberattack compromised the systems of two Pennsylvania county governments, Buck and Washington. The court system of Washington County was totally disrupted along with other county services.

The Washington County courts have been in an emergency mode as officials and outside experts work on a phased-in restoration of services. The county has retained the services of outside counsel, Eckert Seamans, and a cybersecurity and digital data forensics firm, Sylint.

Topics Cyber Washington Pennsylvania