(SitNews) Anchorage, Alaska - The Alaska Court System (ACS) has temporarily disconnected online services, including the ability to look up case information in CourtView, to remove malware from its servers. At this time, the court system does not believe any confidential court documents or employee information has been compromised, but will promptly notify any affected individuals if that occurs. No customer credit card information was compromised. Last updates were on April 20, 2021.

The court system is working with a cybersecurity company to respond to the incident and prevent any further system breaches. ACS disconnected its servers from the internet to stop any additional incursions. This impacts the public’s ability to:

• access the court calendars on the Alaska Court System website;
• access to CourtView, the court’s case management system which includes listings of all filings, orders, and hearing dates;
• send email to any court email addresses, including filing documents by email;
• receive email from court email addresses;
• eFiling through TrueFiling;
• submit online juror questionnaires;
• participate by Zoom in hearings or meetings;
• participate in hearings by video from jail facilities that use Polycom systems;
• make online payments for bail or filing fees; and
• send citations through TRACS.

The following systems will continue to work:

• phone, fax and Zoom phone numbers;
• internal email between ACS employees;
• courtroom recording system;
• electronic file access by judicial officers in eFiling locations; and
• courthouse security systems and building access.

It is unclear when the courts will reconnect to the internet. The court system is committed to continuing operations while remedying the cybersecurity incident. Emergency hearings and essential proceedings will occur including: arraignments, domestic violence hearings, Child in Need of Aid emergency hearings, bail hearings, mental health commitment hearings, emergency guardianship proceedings, and search warrant requests. Other proceedings may occur and the court will notify parties of any schedule changes. Most hearings will happen telephonically. All scheduled jury trials will continue as planned.

The court system will be unable to update its website regularly while online services are down. Phone numbers for individual courthouses are the best way to contact the court system. Updates and more information about accessing services and court calendars will be made on the court system’s Facebook page and Twitter account; accourding to the news release, you do not need Facebook or Twitter accounts to see updates.

Edited By Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

Alaska Court System
http://www.courts.alaska.gov

Representations of fact and opinions in comments posted are solely those of the individual posters and do not represent the opinions of Sitnews.

SitNews ©2021
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews are considered protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper freelance writers and subscription services. E-mail your news & photos to editor@sitnews.us Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.