Washington courts grapple with statewide outage after 'unauthorized activity'

A statewide IT outage attributed to "unauthorized activity" is affecting the availability of services provided by all courts in Washington.

The Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) confirmed the issues via social media and warned they could persist for days. In a statement, it said:

"The [AOC] recently identified unauthorized activity on the Washington Courts network. We have taken immediate action to secure critical systems and are working to safely restore service. 

"Please be advised that there will be intermittent impacts to accessibility of our public website and systems in the coming days as we continue to restore services. We apologize for any inconvenience."

The AOC is responsible for various tasks related to the maintenance of the state's courts, including case management, overseeing the technology used in the state's courts, and ensuring facilities are accessible.

Its remit includes all courts such as the state supreme court, court of appeals, superior courts, courts of limited jurisdiction, and more.

It specifically did not call the incident a cyberattack, despite the statement's phrasing suggesting it might be the case.

Wendy Ferrell, associate director for the AOC, told the Seattle Times that the organization wasn't revealing much about the incident for "security reasons" but said officials "have no reason to believe that was a targeted attack."

"In an abundance of caution, we proactively took down our systems to secure them and are working around the clock with leading experts to restore services as quickly as possible," she added.

Laura Anglin, senior law clerk at Washington State Supreme Court, said on Monday: "This has been a long day already!"

It's understood that all courts across the state are affected to varying degrees. The AOC's site is down at the time of writing, Bremerton Municipal Court confirmed it was experiencing issues but did not specify what these were, while Pierce County reported that its district and superior courts were affected differently.

"The district court will operate with limited services until further notice," it said in a Sunday statement. "Essential hearings will proceed as scheduled unless otherwise notified, and probation appointments will continue. Customer service counters are open, though visitors are encouraged to call ahead to confirm services.

"Alternative programs such as the Court Resource Center, Workcrew and Day Reporting, Courage to Change, and DV-MRT are unaffected and will operate as scheduled. For those in ongoing trials or scheduled hearings, the District Court recommends contacting the court directly through live chat, email, fax, or phone."

Its superior court, however, is operating with "minimal disruption" although "court staff are closely monitoring the situation and will provide updates on the court's website as necessary."

An additional update on Monday said the county's superior court clerk's office remained open but was unable to search court records or process balances owed for judgments and fines.

According to Rebecca C Robertson, chief presiding judge at King County District Court, who spoke to the Seattle Times, municipal courts that rely on the state's case management systems are the most affected, while those in King County, which have their own, aren't experiencing so many issues.

A wider issue

A similar story is still playing out in California. San Joaquin County's superior court has been battling issues since October 30, issues which officials said amount to a "cybersecurity incident."

Its network is currently down and systems have been pulled offline as a precaution while it works through the situation with outside experts.

An update posted on Monday confirmed an array of services are down and some jurors have been stood down, despite the courts remaining open and cases being heard.

"All online services, including e-filing, online dispute resolution, support tickets, and online payments are temporarily unavailable," a statement said.

"Credit card payments cannot be processed at our counters but an authorization can be submitted with the filing. All court calendars are proceeding as normal."

The superior court added that it didn't know when services would resume or when its investigation into the matter would conclude but committed to providing regular updates where available. ®