Cyberattacks targeting state and local courts are growing in frequency and intensity, as hackers attempt to steal sensitive data, demand ransoms, and sow chaos, says the State Court Report. Over the last 18 months, court systems and related offices like public defenders, prosecutors, and county clerks have been forced offline in Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi, Colorado and Ohio. The worst recent attack, on the Kansas court system last October, took four months and millions of dollars to overcome. For the public, law enforcement, lawyers, and court officials, the impact of a prolonged cyberattack is more than an inconvenience. Trials risk postponement when records are unavailable. Police and prosecutors may be unable to access a suspect’s criminal history. Protection orders can be delayed. Background checks may slow to a crawl, pushing back new employee start dates.
“It’s like a category five hurricane,” said John Miller, chief judge of Florida’s First Judicial Circuit, which was attacked last September. “The level of intensity from a cyberattack is ten times what we experienced during the pandemic.” Many courts are unprepared, lacking the funds, staffing, equipment, and preparatory plans needed to repel cyberattacks. A 2022 survey by the National Center for State Courts found that even as disruptive incidents had dramatically increased, the number of dedicated cybersecurity managers in state and local courts had fallen between 2017 and 2021. Only 60 percent of court officials said they were conducting annual vulnerability and threat assessments of their IT systems. A review by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security found that in the first eight months of 2023 malware attacks against state and local governments rose 148 percent. Ransomware incidents were up more than 50 percent. “The attacks are becoming more sophisticated, and more personalized,” said Shay Cleary of the National Center for State Courts consulting group on court technology and security. “Everyone should be diligent — and nervous.”