The Pennsylvania State Court has investigated the recent cyber attack on its systems — details are still sparse.
Over the weekend, the Pennsylvania court was the victim of a denial of service attack. This form of cyber warfare sees the attacker overwhelm the victim’s networks with a barrage of sudden traffic. The goal is to disrupt the network and prevent the victim from accessing it.
Some criminals will couple this with other attacks, such as attempting to exfiltrate data, implant malware, or completely take the network down for weeks. These attacks are commonly aimed at large companies or government agencies.
According to court officials, there doesn’t appear to be any sign that data was compromised. Whether the hackers were unable to steal it or chose not to is currently unknown. The court still keeps written records of important information, so even in the worst-case scenario, it could continue to operate.
The court did not say if its cybersecurity defenses were working as intended.
The attempt to disrupt the courts also seemingly failed, as several systems were up and running by Monday. Many county clerks even told officials that they weren’t experiencing any issues.
Investigators attempted to identify the attackers, but even with the aid of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) they were unable to establish their identities.
Court officials confirmed that they will continue to monitor the situation alongside CISA.
The attack comes just days after a similar attack on Fulton County, Georgia. The attack on Fulton County was more severe however as it brought down their network completely. The county is currently processing a case against Donald Trump and his 12 co-conspirators.
The attack came just after several verdicts were made.
Similar to the Pennsylvania courts, Fulton County kept written records of important information, which means the case is continuing normally.