Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd provided an update on Monday after a cyberattack last week left the state's court website crippled.
Todd said that, through the "tireless resistance" from administrative and information technology professionals, the denial of service attack that disabled some online systems beginning last weekend, had ended and online services were restored.
“Last week, the courts were the target of a significant and serious denial of service attack, orchestrated by a faceless and nameless virtual opponent who was intent on attacking our infrastructure and orchestrating a shutdown of our state judicial system," Todd said in a statement. “These anonymous actors attempted to undermine our mission to make justice accessible and to shutter the operation of the statewide court system."
Officials said that the cyberattack did not appear to compromise any data and didn't stop the courts from opening last week.
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Various county court clerks have said their offices operated smoothly last week, despite the disruptions to some online portals and services.
Todd called the incident a “denial of service” cyberattack, using the federal government’s description for when attackers “flood the targeted host or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or simply crashes, preventing access for legitimate users.”
But, that attack had been handled and all services, she said, were back online by Monday.
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“[O]ur website containing news, statistics, court opinions and the civics educational toolkit is back online, along with all e-services and e-commerce options, including PACFile, the Guardianship Tracking System, web dockets and PAePay systems, which were restored last week," she said.
Moving forward, Todd said that "our team remains ever vigilant" in preventing any future cyberattack and they will continue to work with other law enforcement agencies as an investigation into the cyberattack continues.
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