In a cyberattack that reportedly started when a court employee opened a link in an email sent to him, personal data for over 1.3 million people was exposed via the attacks on Arizona court system.
This is about information for approximately 1.3 million individuals who had paid unpaid court fees, fines or restitution for traffic and criminal violations as far back as 30 years, the Arizona Supreme Court said.
Records from other court-related systems were also breached. Almost 30,000 orders of protection are estimated to have been accessed during the attack, including active and inactives.
Additionally, approximately 150,000 reports submitted as far back as 2010 were removed from a foster care board that has suggestions for recommendations in situations involving allegations that a parent may not be able or fit to parent their child.
On September 24, the court’s tech team noticed the attack on a backup server, and the compromised system was turned off about two hours following the discovery. Authorities have since started to alert individuals whose information might have been breached.
Arizona Supreme Court spokeswoman Alberto Rodriguez said there was no evidence at this time that the stolen info was used or passed around after the attack. The incident is still being investigated.
Even though so many files were hacked, court officials stated that the hack did not impact or put on hold any of the pending cases in court. Court is continuing and investigators and technology teams are evaluating the incident.
No record of being altered or deleted was found, officials also said. Reports indicate the information stolen in the attack did not include information pertaining to jurors, witnesses or court staff.
The crash serves as something of a warning to all courts that have a lot of personal and legal data which could present serious dangers. Copied data was reportedly deleted and investigators are continuing to investigate how they accessed the information.