Cyber attack makes part of PA Courts website inaccessible

💻The hack on the PA Courts system was discovered Sunday night

💻Courts are open as usual Monday

💻It's the second cyberattack on a PA government agency in the past month

Portions of the Pennsylvania court website are unavailable due to a denial of service cyber attack, according to a message from Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd.

Court website services including PACFile, the use of online docket sheets, PAcPay, and the Guardianship Tracking System are affected, according to Todd. Court data does not appear to be compromised.

“Our court information technology and executive team is working closely with law enforcement including the CISA, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I to investigate the incident,” Todd said in a statement.

Courts will be open as normal on Monday.

Second attack in 30 days

A denial of service, or D.O.S., attack, involves the flooding of a system with traffic that it cannot handle causing it to crash and preventing access, according to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Courts are open as normal Monday.

The attack is the second reported attack on a Pennsylvania government agency in the past month.

Access to the Bucks County computer-aided dispatch system (CAD) was restored Wednesday, nine days after a ransomware attack rendered it unavailable. The county emergency communications center also regained access to state and federal databases.

At no time was the county's ability to receive calls interrupted. Dispatchers had to use alternate means to record information from 911 callers.

County spokesman James O'Malley would not disclose if a ransom was paid or the process to restore access.

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