The Superior Court of Los Angeles is slowly getting back on its feet following a cyberattack.
On July 19, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County’s Court Technology Services (CTS) Division identified a serious security event in the court’s internal systems which has now been determined to stem from a ransomware attack.
Upon discovering the attack, the court disabled its network systems to mitigate further harm. In responding to the attack, the court received support from the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CALOES) as well as local, state, and Federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the breach and mitigate its impacts. Results from a preliminary investigation show no evidence of court users’ data being compromised.
The court remained closed over the week and through Monday, and re-opened with limited capacity as of Tuesday, July 23.
“I am grateful to the countless court staff who worked tirelessly over the past 96 hours since the attack was first detected to bring many of our network systems back online and ensure the largest trial court in the nation is able to reopen for business,” said Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner in a statement on Monday, July 22.
“The Court will not function fully and completely tomorrow but promising and steady progress continues to be made ensuring that we will recover from this attack and restore access to justice for the millions of court users that rely on the Court,” Jessner said. “I am confident that collectively, we will emerge from this incident stronger and more secure than ever.”
Court officials said the Technology Services Division staff has restored the integrity of the court’s network and brought many systems and services back online, including the court’s case management systems.
However, despite many systems and services being brought back online, the court still had only limited capacity for remote appearances. The court said its remote appearance platform – LACourtConnect – is expected to be back online for Civil cases only. Parties in Family Law and Probate cases will not be able to appear remotely and must appear in person. Additionally, WebEx appearances will also be available for Criminal, Mental Health and Juvenile matters.
Currently, the court’s electronic filing system is only available for filing of case initiating documents only. Electronic filing of subsequent documents in existing cases remains unavailable at this time. In terms of the court’s website, certain pages of the website are available now, and other pages will come back online over the next few days as the remainder of the court’s systems are brought back online.
