Cybersecurity attack forces Alaska Court System to temporarily go offline

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Online services for the Alaska Court System are offline temporarily while the Alaska Communications removes malware from its servers following a cybersecurity attack.

The disconnect affects online services including the court system website and the ability to look up case information in CourtView.

“By noon (Saturday) it had become apparent that some outside actors were trying to insert malware on our PC’s and our servers, and they had done so on a handful of computers statewide, and so that was a serious situation that we could not allow to continue,” said Alaska Supreme Court Chief Justice Joel Bolger in a Sunday interview.

According to a press release, ACS does not believe any confidential court documents or employee information was compromised. The release says no customer credit card information was compromised.

Details about where the attack came from are unclear, as well as when the courts will be able to reconnect to the internet.

“The court system, as well as many other government agencies in large corporations, is constantly the subject to attempted attacks on our network, so our tech department has to be constantly vigilant to detect these things, and I’m very grateful that this time we detected this at an early stage,” said Bolger.

According to the court system, emergency and essential hearings will continue to occur. Any other schedule changes will be communicated to involved parties.

The court system will post updates and more information about accessing services and court calendars on its Facebook page and Twitter account.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional information.