Kansas officials blame 5-week disruption of court system on 'sophisticated foreign cyberattack'
Officials say cybercriminals hacked into the Kansas court system, stole sensitive data and threatened to post it on the dark web in a ransomware attack that has hobbled access to records for more than five weeks
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Cybercriminals hacked into the Kansas court system, stole sensitive data and threatened to post it on the dark web in a ransomware attack that has hobbled access to records for more than five weeks, officials said Tuesday.
The announcement of a “sophisticated foreign cyberattack” was confirmation of what computer security experts suspected after the state's Judicial Branch said Oct. 12 that it was pausing electronic filings. Until now, state officials had released few details, describing it simply as a “security incident.”
Upon learning about the attack, the state disconnected its court information system from external access and notified authorities, the Judicial Branch said in a statement. That disrupted daily operations of the state’s appellate courts and all but one county. Johnson County, the state’s most populous, operates its own computer systems and had not yet switched over to the state’s new online system.
In recent weeks many attorneys have been forced to file motions the old fashioned way — on paper.
