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Main Points:
- The Kansas judicial branch has developed a restoration plan for its eCourt case management system after a cyberattack in October that lasted five weeks.
- Strategic restoration efforts are underway, aiming to reinstate access to the case management system gradually across all district courts by the end of next week.
The Kansas judicial branch is working on strategic plans to restore its compromised eCourt case management system. This move follows a significant cyberattack incident that occurred on October 12 and lasted more than five weeks. The Kansas Court cyberattack not only affected essential information systems needed for processing cases in the district courts, but also resulted in data theft and serious threats of exposure on the dark web. This situation necessitated the creation of a comprehensive recovery plan.
Chief Justice Marla Luckert is leading the restoration process. It started with three judicial districts on Wednesday and aims to reinstate access to the case management system across all districts by the end of the next week. Despite having reached this crucial milestone, Justice Luckert noted that there are still significant ongoing challenges in the recovery process, particularly regarding updating information within the case management system.
As part of the restoration, the Kansas eCourt case management system has been reinstated in the 9th Judicial District (Harvey and McPherson counties) and the 23rd Judicial District (Ellis, Gove, Rooks, and Trego counties). More access restorations are scheduled to take place across the remaining districts in phases over the coming days. The plan is to have coverage for all 104 counties by next week, save for the Johnson County District Court that is set to transition to the Kansas eCourt case management system in 2024.
Once fully restored, courts will once more offer visitors the option to search district court case information through courthouse terminals. However, due to the cyberattack, the system was down for a while, and case events and documents from after October 12 may not appear immediately in these searches. Access to the web-based Kansas District Court Public Access Portal will be granted as soon as all district courts have regained full access to the case management system.
Apart from retrieving access to the case management system, the judicial branch has successfully restored online services such as the Kansas Protection Order Portal for electronically filed protection orders and the online marriage license application. Further plans for restoring e-filing and case management systems for the Kansas Supreme Court and the Kansas Court of Appeals will start once all the district court systems are restored completely.
The Office of Judicial Administration has assured that they will share a timeline for the recovery process as they make progress, with the intention of achieving a full recovery from the Kansas Courts Cyberattack.
