LOS ANGELES—The Los Angeles County Superior Court system is set to reopen on July 23 after a ransomware attack last Friday.
All 36 courthouses in the county, shut down on July 22 due to the cyberattack, will resume operations on Tuesday. However, the court also cautioned that delays and other issues are possible because of “ limits in functionality,” according to an update posted on its website.
Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner said in a statement late Sunday night the cyberattack was “unprecedented.”
“[The attack] 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,” Ms. Jessner said.
According to the Sunday statement, staff members worked with “outside consultants, vendors, other courts and law enforcement to get the court’s network systems back online.”
The court’s “entire operation” was affected, from “external systems such as the MyJuryDuty Portal and the court’s website to internal systems such as the court’s case management systems,” the court said.
The county Public Defender’s Office issued a statement Monday saying it was communicating with court officials, and given the delay in hearings for many defendants in criminal cases, it is “focused on minimizing disruptions and safeguarding the rights of our clients.”
“The right to a speedy trial is a cornerstone of justice, and this remains our priority,” according to the public defender’s office. “We are actively monitoring the impact of the attack on court schedules and will take all necessary legal steps to protect our clients’ constitutional and statutory rights.”
The hack—described as “a serious security event”—was first noticed early Friday and determined to be a ransomware attack, the court said in an announcement on Friday night.
Soon after the hack was detected, the court’s Technology Services Division immediately shut down network computer systems “to mitigate further harm.”
However, the courts did remain open for business on Friday.
The ransomware attack was believed to be unrelated to the CrowdStrike issue that created havoc on computer systems worldwide on Friday, the court said on Friday.
Court officials said the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, as well as local, state, and federal law-enforcement agencies, were all participating in the investigation into the breach.
“At this time, the preliminary investigation shows no evidence of court users’ data being compromised,” the court said Friday.
The statement credited the court’s heavy investment in cybersecurity and increased staffing in the cybersecurity division in helping officials to quickly detect the intrusion and address it immediately.
The court hack was the second in recent years against a major Los Angeles public agency.
Over Labor Day weekend in September 2022, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) was the victim of a ransomware attack that was later reported to have been perpetrated by a Russia-based hacking syndicate called the Vice Society.
Some data was stolen during that attack and posted on the dark web, but Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said at the time there was no evidence the hackers had accessed sensitive student or staff personal data.
The posting of the data—mostly involving some of the LAUSD’s outside contractors, the district said at the time—came ahead of an announced deadline the hacking group gave the district to pay an unspecified ransom it had demanded.
The early release of the data appeared to follow repeated assertions by Mr. Carvalho and the district that it had no intention of paying any type of ransom.
Sophie Li contributed to this report.
