LA County Superior Court closes doors to reboot justice after ransomware attack

Los Angeles County Superior Court, the largest trial court in America, closed all 36 of its courthouses today following an "unprecedented" ransomware attack on Friday.

According to a statement, the malware bricked "every electronic platform containing court data," both internal and external court systems, as well as every internet-connected device including the phones.

Since Friday, court employees and infosec experts have been working around the clock to reconfigure and restore court servers and databases, we're told.

They are still assessing the extent of the network intrusion, however, and during the work to resurrect IT systems "have encountered obstacles that make it impossible for judges and court personnel to conduct proceedings on Monday, July 22, 2024."

Court officials made the decision to close all locations across Los Angeles County on Sunday night, and said they expect to reopen on Tuesday.

"The Court experienced an unprecedented cyberattack on Friday which has resulted in the need to shut down nearly all network systems in order to contain the damage, protect the integrity and confidentiality of information and ensure future network stability and security," said Presiding Judge Samantha P Jessner in a statement.

"While the Court continues to move swiftly towards a restoration and recovery phase, many critical systems remain offline as of Sunday evening. One additional day will enable the Court's team of experts to focus exclusively on bringing our systems back online so that the Court can resume operations as expeditiously, smoothly and safely as possible."

The network disruption is unrelated to the CrowdStrike fiasco on Friday that shut down Windows systems across the globe, according to an earlier statement. ®