The Philadelphia online court system has been closed for a month due to a virus that has interrupted access to the network, report specialists from the IICS’s cybersecurity course. “Suddenly the systems started to fail, I even thought the problem was on my computer”, said one of the system managers.
This incident, in addition to similar ones,
such as massive ransomware attacks on the Baltimore
government, has led legislators and government agencies to begin questioning
cities’ capacities to respond to these incidents; now, Philadelphia lawyers
have resorted to using paper and pencil to keep their functions active while
experts in the cybersecurity course experts try to find a viable solution.
Presumably, the problem is due to malware
detected on a few computers on the network. As a precautionary measure, the
Philadelphia authorities decided to shut the system; in addition, it has been
leaked that system managers hired a cybersecurity service firm to investigate
the incident. The physical offices of the state courts work normally.
Although the offices are still working, the use
of documentation only in physical format has generated chaos for the courts of
the State, because among all the legal processes presented each week have been
lost or misplaced files with urgent matters, as foreclosures.
According to the cybersecurity course experts,
there is no information available to the public about how long the system will
delay to be restored. For its part, the court issued a statement mentioning:
“There is no exact date for the reinstatement of our systems; however, we
will continue to provide updates on the incident when these are
available”.
Although it takes a long time to work, lawyers
working with the Philadelphia online cutting system continue to do their job
manually. One example is foreclosures, which are reviewed in detail to avoid
being treated incorrectly because of the confusion generated by the increase in
workload.
Specialists from the International Institute of
Cyber Security (IICS) believe that, in case this is a ransomware
attack, the government of Philadelphia has made the right decision by not
giving in to the demands of the attackers, as there is no guarantee for restoring
compromised systems, plus payment for ransom only helps hackers finance their
upcoming attacks.
