Cyberattack on Arizona Courts Exposes Personal Data of Protective Order Holders

Criminal hackers breached Arizona's court system, potentially exposing personal data including confidential addresses of people with protective orders.

Arizona Court System Hit by Cyberattack, Confidential Addresses at Risk

Criminal hackers or automated bots copied personally identifiable information from Arizona's state court system in a cyberattack discovered within the past 36 hours, azfamily.com reports. Among those potentially affected are Arizonans with current or past protective orders, whose confidential addresses on file with the court may have been compromised.

Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer announced the breach on Friday night, shortly after court IT staff detected the attack and moved to shut it down. The Supreme Court's Administrative Office of the Courts began emailing affected individuals the same evening, including notifications sent after regular business hours given the urgent nature of the exposure.

"As soon as I learned about this outrageous criminal attack on Arizona's Courts, I immediately called our team together to formulate a response," Timmer said in a written release. "I personally spoke with the top-ranking FBI leader in the state, and I pledged our full commitment to supporting their investigation and minimising the likelihood that the information will be used to further jeopardise Arizonans."

Officials said the attack targeted court records broadly and was not directed at any specific individual. There is no evidence so far that the stolen information has been shared with third parties. However, investigators noted uncertainty about how readily usable the copied data is, stating in the notification email that "based on the format of the information copied, it's unclear whether most of the data copied can be easily read."

The notification sent to those with protective orders stated in part: "Your address is confidential. Although the court system has significant safeguards to protect this information, no computer network is 100% secure."

The court is working with the FBI to identify those responsible and to limit the risk of further misuse of the data. Law enforcement has been formally alerted. Officials advised anyone who believes they are in immediate danger to contact their local law enforcement agency directly.

The Administrative Office of the Courts directed anyone with questions to monitor AZCourts.gov for ongoing updates as the investigation continues.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)