Kansas officials confirmed a massive computer outage, which has exacerbated the court system for two weeks.
Ransomware Attack Slowed Down Kansas Court System
This picture taken on November 3, 2016 shows on a screen viruses list at the LHS (High Security Laboratory) of the INRIA (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation) in Rennes. - Paradise where computer viruses blossom under the watchful eye of scientists, the Laboratory of high security (LHS-PEC) of Rennes is a small fortress from where emerge the first studies on the "ransomwares", those digital brigands which Dominate the malware market.
According to the US News, the Judicial Branch announced the first security incident in Kansas court. The court has stopped electronic filings, processing payments, accepting public access to records, and authorizing people to file electronically for protection from abuse orders and marriage licenses.
Since the state's courts were still offline, the attorneys had limited access to records and were forced to file required documents on paper. The growing piles of paper that need to be organized and scanned are causing the court's exhaustion.
A Lawrence-based criminal defense attorney, Chris Joseph, said the security incident slowed the system down. Lisa Taylor, the Judicial Branch's spokesperson, wrote an email and said that they are handling the incident with the highest priority.
Taylor said they are investigating whether the courts had already identified if the security incident was a malicious attack. They are also examining if there had been a ransom demand and when the systems will return to normal.
Furthermore, the court system has initiated a website to help investigate the incident. She added that officials will join forces with any law enforcement investigation. Allan Liska of the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future concluded that it was doubtful that this was anything but a ransomware attack.
Spokesperson Melissa Underwood said that only those examining the problems are along with federal partners. However, Liska has reported that no ransomware group has claimed credit for the attack.
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Cybersecurity Threats in Courts
In 2019, Georgia closed some court websites and forced some court dates to be rescheduled. Texas' top criminal and civil courts ran into a ransomware attack in 2020; the filing system remained functioning, and trial courts were unaffected. In 2021, a cybersecurity threat forced Alaska's court to proceed offline for about a week.
Judge Phil Journey in Sedgwick County said that even though he was known as a "techie" judge, he still does not entirely rely on digital files as it poses a risk of postponing trials. He said they will use paper for at least another week and joked, "We'll be killing many trees."
Jonathan Carter, a district attorney's office spokesman, confirmed that the outage has caused some delays, but trials are in progress. According to Karla Whitaker, interim executive director of the Kansas Bar Association, the senior attorneys have been teaching the young attorneys to use faxes and file with paper.
"The wheels of justice are turning," she said on Wednesday. "But I think it's just happening in a different way at a different pace right now," she added.
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