Pennsylvania courts resume business after weekend DDoS attack
Over the weekend, the Pennsylvania state courts website suffered a distributed denial-of-service attack, which disrupted several of its computer systems, including online docket sheets and an electronic case document filing portal.
The attack does not appear to have compromised any data, nor impeded the courts from conducting regular business at the start of the week, with court officials logging court filings by paper and by mail, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd said in an update on Monday.
“As of 5:20p.m., portions of the website including PACFile, GTS, web dockers, and court summaries, and and PAePay have been restored. Our court information technology and executive team continues to work closely with the FBI and Homeland Security to analyze and investigate the cyber attack,” Todd said in a press release.
Denial-of-service attacks involve overloading servers with requests until they crash.
“While there is still no indication that any court data has been compromised, we appeciate the patience and cooperation of the public, media, and legal professionals, as we work to bring the entire website back online,” Todd said. “We reiterate that, amid this event, the courts have remained open and accessible.
The attack comes a few months after a cyber incident hobbled the courts management system in Kansas, which downed the judicial system for months, and a week after a cyberattack hit portions of the judicial system in Fulton County, Georgia.
