Pennsylvania

Online Pa. court services ‘in a virtual battle' to stay online following cyberattack

After services were partially restored on Monday evening, officials said that they were still 'in a virtual battle' to protect portions of the state's online courts' website

The exterior of the Pennsylvania Judicial Center, home to the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, Pa.
Matt Rourke/AP

After seeing some of the Pennsylvania Courts' website back online Monday evening, officials said that, on Tuesday, the website was continuing to struggle amid a denial of service cyberattack.

On Tuesday afternoon, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania Debra Todd provided an update saying that officials believe most services have been restored, but there may be ongoing issues.

“As of 3 p.m., e-services and e-commerce portions of the Pennsylvania Courts website including PACFile, GTS, web dockets and court summaries, and PAePay remain operational and accessible to the public," she said.

She said that they are continuing to work to bring court information and education web pages back online -- including news and statistics pages as well as the civics education toolkit.

“We remain in a virtual battle with an unknown opponent who continues to target our online platform through what federal law enforcement has deemed a significant and serious denial of service attack. Rest assured that our information technology and executive team along with the guidance and support of the FBI and Department of Homeland Security are well equipped to meet these challenges head-on while developing a strategic plan to permanently restore all of our systems in a safe and effective manner," she said.

Still, she said, there has been no indication that any court data has been compromised and courts throughout the state have remained open amid the cyberattack.

According to the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, a denial of service cyber attack occurs when malicious actors flood the targeted host or network with traffic until the target cannot respond or simply crashes, preventing access for legitimate users, officials said.

This is a breaking news story. It will be updated as new information becomes available.

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