AUSTIN - A ransomware attack has taken the Texas Office of Court Administration offline since Friday.
The agency hosts websites and computer networks for the state's Supreme Court, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and multiple appellate courts including the 6th District Court of Appeals headquartered in Texarkana on the second floor of the Bi-State Justice Building.
A statement released by OAC Administrative Director David Slayton states that no ransom will be paid.
"The attack began during the overnight hours and was first discovered in the early morning hours on Friday. The attack is unrelated to the courts' migration to remote hearings amid the coronavirus pandemic," the OAC statement said.
According to the statement, the attack began overnight and was discovered Friday morning. To prevent further harm, the branch network, including websites and servers, have been disabled. The OCA is working with the Texas Department of Information Resources to investigate the breach.
"In recent years, the majority of the Texas Judicial Branch entities supported by OCA have moved many IT functions to the cloud. These services have not been impacted by the attack. These cloud services include eFileTexas (for filing of documents), reSearchTX (for reviewing filed documents), collaboration tools for editing and sharing documents, and email. This action will permit many of the courts and judicial branch agencies to continue operations and ensure that filing of documents can continue uninterrupted. At this time, there is no indication that any sensitive information, including personal information, was compromised. Additionally, due to the structure of the IT function within the state judiciary, individual trial court networks throughout the state were unaffected by the cyberattack," the statement said.
The statement notes that OCA will not comment on the ongoing investigation until it has information available for public release.