The Los Angeles County Superior Court system was hit by a ransomware attack Friday morning, prompting authorities to disable network systems until at least the weekend.
The attack does not appear to be related to the flawed CrowdStrike update that triggered a global technology outage on Friday, officials said in a statement.
CrowdStrike is a leading provider of software designed to protect businesses from ransomware, in which an attacker encrypts and blocks access to computer systems or data until a payment is made. Law enforcement is investigating the attack on the court and so far there is “no evidence of ransomware.” [users’] “Data is compromised,” the statement said.
After the attack was discovered, the court’s network systems were disabled to minimize damage, the statement said. Those systems are expected to remain offline at least through the weekend to resolve the issue.
Authorities did not specify which “network systems” had been disabled. However, as of Friday evening, several pages of the court’s website were not working and were returning error messages, including the jury portal.
