28 November 2023
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas judicial branch has a plan to restore court systems by the end of the year after a foreign cyberattack.
Last week the Kansas Supreme Court confirmed the “security incident” affecting court systems is the result of a sophisticated foreign cyberattack.
It happened Oct. 12, and Kansas’ online court systems — including 104 district courts and the state supreme court — have been down ever since.
The Kansas Supreme Court said the criminals behind the cyberattack stole data and have threatened to post it to the “dark web” if their demands aren’t met.
Based on an early review, the Kansas Supreme Court believes the stolen information includes Office of Judicial Administration files, district court case records on appeal and other data — some of which could be confidential.
The court said fully reviewing all that might have been stolen will take time, but once it’s complete, they will notify those affected.
Getting back online
The Kansas eCourt case management system, which 104 district courts use, will be reintroduced in phases.
The state plans to have all courts, except Johnson County, back on the system by the end of the year. Johnson County District Court currently has its own online system but will join the Kansas eCourt system in 2024.
After the eCourt system is online, the state will restore its eFiling system that attorneys use to file documents. Until then, attorneys will have to keep delivering paper filings to the courthouse in person, by mail or by fax.
Next, after the eCourt and eFiling systems are online, the state will restore the Kansas District Court Public Access Portal. It provides the public access to court information and allows people to pay fines and other costs.
Other online systems like the Kansas Protection Order Portal and the Kansas online marriage license application will be restored as soon as possible.
Finally, the state will bring the systems used by the Kansas Supreme Court and Kansas Court of Appeals online after district court systems.
How long will it take?
The judicial branch said its recovery plan follows best practices for safely restoring and managing systems after a security incident like this.
The state said it expects to accomplish the work over the next several weeks, but the Kansas Judicial Branch stressed the timeline is subject to change.
“To help us prepare our recovery timeline, we sought input from cybersecurity incident recovery experts,” Chief Justice Marla Luckert said in a release. “While we believe our estimate is realistic, we must be prepared for fluctuations as we move forward with our plan.”
In the meantime, the Kansas Office of Judicial Administration has already opened two service centers in the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka. One is for public access that people can visit by appointment to search case information.