Pennsylvania Courts’ Website Disrupted by DoS Attack

The Pennsylvania Courts system has been hit by a cyber-attack, taking down parts of its website.

The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts revealed via social media that the service had suffered a denial of service (DoS) attack.

The statement noted that court web systems such as PACFile, the use of online docket sheets and the Guardianship Tracking System were impacted by the incident.

At the time of writing, parts of the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania’s website remained unavailable, with numerous pages replaced with an error message that stated: “An error occurred while processing your request. Reference #97.37af3817.1707134897.171556af.”

There is currently no indication that any data has been compromised. Courts in Pennsylvania will remain open and accessible to the public.

Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, Debra Todd, commented: “Our court information technology and executive team is working closely with law enforcement including the CISA, the US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to investigate the incident.”

Pennsylvania Courts added that it will provide more information as it becomes available.

The Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania is the state court system of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, administering the state’s judicial system. This includes operating its IT systems and holding data on cases.

On January 2, the court system in the Australian state of Victoria was hit by a cyber-attack, with attackers potentially accessing recordings of hearings, including those involving people whose identities are protected.

In September 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) revealed it had discovered suspicious activity inside its IT network. It later confirmed the attack was a highly targeted espionage attempt.

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