Kansas courts possibly disrupted by ransomware
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The court systems in Kansas experienced outages, which Judge Philip Journey of Sedgwick County attributed to a ransomware attack, although no further details about the intrusion have been disclosed.
The incident impacted various systems, including
- e-filing system,
- protection order portal,
- appellate case system,
- attorney state registry,
- district court public access portal,
- case management system,
- online marriage license application system.
These problems were initially identified on October 12, and as a result, the Supreme Court has been temporarily relying on paper records to continue its operations.
An investigation into the incident is already underway. This incident occurred after a cyberattack disrupted the Regional Justice Information System, used by Kansas, Illinois, and Missouri counties, last month.
Update - on 21st of November the Kansas Supreme Court confirmed that the recent disruption of the state's court system was due to a ransomware attack, with the attackers stealing confidential data and threatening to publish it unless their demands are met. While experts are still determining the full extent of the data breach, compromised information includes records from the Office of Judicial Administration and district court cases. The court system expects to remain offline for several more weeks, with no precise date for restoration provided.
On 8th of May 2024, The Kansas Office of Judicial Administration reported that almost 150,000 individuals were potentially compromised in the ransomware attack. Exposed data includes:
- Social Security numbers,
- government ID cards,
- driver's licenses,
- tax identification numbers,
- card payment details,
- health insurance policy information,
- passports
People whose data may have been impacted are going to be notified via letters.
