Washington State Court systems face widespread outages following “unauthorized activity” on networks

Washington state court systems have been offline since Sunday following the detection of “unauthorized activity” on their networks, impacting the availability of judicial information systems, websites, and related services statewide. The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) quickly acted to secure critical systems, shutting down affected networks and working with cybersecurity experts to restore access, according to statements reported by The Seattle Times.

“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,” said AOC Associate Director Wendy Ferrell.

While the outage affects most state courts, some local municipal and district courts, including those in Bainbridge Island, Monroe, Puyallup, Milton, and Thurston County, continue to offer limited services. The Pierce County Superior Court Clerk’s Office also reported service interruptions due to the network breach. Still, it confirmed that online access remains available, as its operations have been less severely impacted.

“The Pierce County Clerk of Superior Court’s Office is experiencing service interruptions due to unauthorized activity detected on the Washington Courts network,” the Pierce County Clerk’s Office stated. Essential functions, such as court proceedings and customer service counters, are expected to operate with minimal disruption. However, certain services, including balance information on fines and electronic court record searches, are temporarily unavailable until full restoration. The Pierce County Clerk added that modified services would continue through the week to prioritize core functions while safeguarding system integrity.

This incident comes a year after Kansas faced a cyberattack in October 2023 that forced the Kansas Judicial Branch to take its court systems offline, including eFiling and case management systems. In Kansas, confidential information was confirmed stolen, and although the breach exhibited hallmarks of a ransomware attack, no group has claimed responsibility. Washington’s AOC and local courts are still investigating the source and extent of the current disruption, underscoring the ongoing risks that state court systems face from cyber threats.