Superior Court of Los Angeles County shuts down following ransomware attack

On Monday, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, the largest trial court in the United States, closed all 36 courthouse locations to address a ransomware attack that occurred on Friday. The attack, which has not been claimed by any group, disrupted the entire court network, affecting both external systems like the MyJuryDuty Portal and internal case management systems.

 

According to a statement released on Sunday, many of the court’s network systems were still inaccessible, necessitating the closure to allow an additional day for system restoration. The court anticipates reopening on Tuesday, July 23, as it works diligently to restore essential networks.

 

The attack was first disclosed on Saturday, with the court revealing that it began early on Friday, July 19. Officials confirmed that the incident was unrelated to a global outage caused by a faulty CrowdStrike update. To contain the breach, the court disabled all network systems, which are expected to remain offline until Tuesday as restoration efforts continue.

 

No evidence has been found indicating that any data was compromised in the breach. The court is collaborating with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CALOES) and local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident and assess its impact.

 

Presiding Judge Samantha P. Jessner described the attack as unprecedented, leading to the shutdown of nearly all network systems to protect information integrity and ensure future network stability and security. Despite swift progress towards recovery, critical systems remained offline as of Sunday evening. The additional day was deemed necessary for the court’s expert team to focus on system restoration to resume operations efficiently and safely.

 

The Los Angeles Superior Court, serving over 10 million residents across 41 facilities in 26 cities, employs over 4,800 individuals. This incident marks a significant disruption for the court, which has a history of dealing with cybersecurity threats. In July 2017, a Texas man, Oriyomi Sadiq Aloba, hacked into the court’s systems using stolen employee credentials. He was later sentenced to 145 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.