“Washington State Courts System Outage: Latest Updates and What It Means for You”
KEY TOPICS
- The majority of Washington State court systems are offline due to “Unauthorized Activity”
- Pierce and King County courts only courts with limited availability for case searches
- No definitive date the courts will be returning
- Similar problem occurred in Kansas City in October of 2023 claimed as ransomware attack
BREACH DETECTED
Sunday, November 3rd, a breach was experienced by the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts. This ongoing issue is affecting all businesses that depend on Odyssey system to acquire court document information by way of judicial information systems, websites, and associated services. Specific courts such as the King and Pierce county systems do have limited availability currently.
Statements provided by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) vague. Claiming they acted quickly after the incident was discovered in an effort to secure critical court systems and are working diligently to recover and restore all other systems impacted by this issue.
KingCo & Pierce Activities
Also, along with limited access to King and Pierce Counties, the AOC has stated that the Municipal and Districts courts of Bainbridge Island, Monroe, Puyallup, Milton, and Thurston County are capable of limited services as well.
With limited activity until further notice, Pierce County is at a stand still. The effected sites include normal operations, balanced information including judgements and fines owed, and online court search features. Clerks have informed the public of modifications will continue till the end of week. The courts will maintain essential services during this time that will not compromise the courts (TheRegister).
A year ago, courts located in Kansas City experienced a breach where individuals acquired sensitive files that contained confidential information. No one has yet to take responsibility for the ransomware. These issues forced Kansas Judicial Branch to conduct the same operation shutting down operations until the issues was remedied.