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A cyberattack on a government contractor has knocked out a key tool used by US bankruptcy courts.
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The Administrative Office of the US Courts says the attack also stopped bankruptcy notices from being made and sent.
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BAE Systems says the problem is limited to one system, and both groups are now working on the response.
A cyberattack on a government contractor has disrupted part of the US federal court system. The Administrative Office of the US Courts (AOUSC) shared the news on Thursday. It says the attack hit BAE Systems and took down the notice system that federal bankruptcy courts use. The attack also halted the production and distribution of bankruptcy notices.
Court Notice Websites Go Offline
AOUSC announced the problem in a press release on Thursday. The office said it has stayed in touch with the courts affected by the incident. It is also coordinating with BAE Systems. According to AOUSC, BAE is actively investigating the incident and working to restore its operations.
The press release also explained what is down. BAE operates the BNC systems and websites on behalf of the Judiciary. AOUSC said all access to them is unavailable for now. The related bankruptcy notice process is also unavailable.
The statement named several sites that people cannot reach. These include bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, and notices.uscourts.gov. The National Creditor Registration Service is down as well. AOUSC listed all of them as part of the outage.
BAE runs these systems for the Judiciary, so the contractor sits at the center of this outage. The Judiciary relies on BAE for the websites and the noticing process. When BAE’s systems stopped, the court services tied to them stopped too.
The outage touches the whole bankruptcy noticing process. Courts could not produce notices when the attack began. They also could not send them out. AOUSC says the affected courts are in contact with its staff.
BAE Systems Responds to the Incident
BAE Systems is Europe’s largest defense contractor. The company designs and builds military technology for the UK and US defense departments. It also provides business IT, cloud systems, and cybersecurity services. Its customers include military, intelligence, and civilian government agencies around the world.
A BAE Systems spokesperson commented on the attack. The spokesperson said the company knows about a security incident. According to the spokesperson, the incident is isolated to the BNC system. BAE took immediate steps to deal with it. The company is also working closely with AOUSC on the response.
The spokesperson spoke to reporters about the matter. The statement came from BAE, not from the courts. It covered the steps the company has taken so far. Reporters asked AOUSC for more details earlier today. An AOUSC spokesperson was not available right away. No extra details from the office were available at the time of writing.
The two statements agree on a few points. Both say BAE and AOUSC are working together. Both say the response is underway. AOUSC lists the sites that are down, while BAE describes where the incident sits. Neither statement explains how the attackers got in. They also do not say who carried out the attack. BAE did not say how long the repairs might take. AOUSC did not give a restart date either.
Federal Courts Faced Attacks Before
The US Federal Judiciary is the independent judicial branch of the US federal government. It said last year that it was strengthening its cybersecurity defenses. A cyberattack had hit its electronic case management systems before that announcement.
The Judiciary described one change it made to its systems. Most documents in the system are public. However, some sealed filings contain sensitive information. These filings now get stricter access controls designed to block attackers.
The new controls focus on sealed filings only. Documents that are public stay open to everyone. The Judiciary made these remarks about its security plans in a public statement.
The Judiciary also spoke about the wider threat. This cyberattack on BAE is not the first to touch the federal court system. It said it was taking extra steps to protect sensitive case documents. It linked these steps to recent escalated attacks on its case management system. According to the Judiciary, those attacks were sophisticated and persistent.
Cyberattacks have also affected organizations outside the US court system. In a separate incident, a report said Russian security systems firm Delta was hit by a cyberattack. The incident highlights how organizations in different sectors can face cybersecurity disruptions.
The agency did not confirm a breach of confidential documents. However, a report from that time said hackers broke into the CM/ECF electronic case management systems. The report said they also reached the PACER federal court document management platform. It added that the hackers gained access to sensitive data. That data included the identities of confidential informants.
The new BAE incident adds another problem for the federal courts. It hit a different system from the case management platforms named in last year’s reports. This time, the affected service is the bankruptcy notice system that BAE runs for the Judiciary. AOUSC says it will keep coordinating with BAE as the company works to restore operations. For now, the notice websites remain unavailable.
