A portion of the Pennsylvania State Court’s website is currently unreachable due to a denial of service cyberattack, as reported by Pennsylvania Chief Justice Debra Todd. A denial of service attack occurs when users are unable to gain access to their online resources due to an excess of traffic instigated by malicious actors, leading to the impairment or complete collapse of the target system. This explanation has been provided by the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The attacker’s motives and identity have not been disclosed by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts at this time. Chief Justice Todd revealed that their court IT and executive team are collaborating closely with several law enforcement agencies, including the CISA, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI to examine the incident further.
The cyberattack has affected the court’s online docket and various web services. One considerable impact has been on the PAePay system, which facilitates online payment of court citations. Consequently, web services are currently required to be conducted in person.
Regrettably, this is not an isolated incident as government bodies worldwide have increasingly been targeted. Back in August 2023, the UK Electoral Commission reported a cyberattack that granted “hostile actors” access to the electoral register, which included the name and address of anyone registered to vote between 2014 and 2022. Moreover, a document published by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security in December 2023 declared an upsurge in the global occurrence of cyberattacks aiming at elections.
For detailed insight into the incident, kindly refer to the full report.