OLYMPIA, Wash — Washington’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) systems are back online after 17 days of being shut down due to a cybersecurity threat. State officials announced systems were back online at 1 p.m. on Sunday, November 17th.
Since November 1st, government agencies like the Department of Licensing, the Blake Refund Bureau, the Appellate Court Document Portal and the Department of Children, Youth and Families, were all impacted by the shutdown.
KREM2 was told some agencies were able to work around the shutdown through alternative routes. But not all.
One department that was at a complete standstill was the Secure Automated Firearms E-check system, which the Washington State Patrol oversees. They said about 6,500 background checks have been completed in the first eight hours of the system being back online.
Washington State Patrol says they receive about 700 background checks a day. They claim they are working hard to get through the backlog.
However. The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), an organization dedicated to safeguarding rights of the United States' Second Amendment, was considering legal action.
They claimed citizens’ rights under the Second Amendment were suspended during the system’s shut down.
“We're talking about the inability of somebody to exercise his or her rights of the state and federal constitution," Dave Workman said. “Because the system is online and because they're working to get through these background checks as swiftly as possible, the idea of a lawsuit has been put on the shelf. At least for now.”
Now that the lawsuit is on hold, SAF still wants the state to establish a back-up plan if a shutdown or cyber threat were to happen again.
On the other hand, the AOC said some state departments had alternative options during the shutdown while others did not.
The Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) said they had trouble with foster parent applications during the shutdown.
A Communications Administrator, Nancy Gutierrez, said the department's processes were delayed, not stalled. But, once the department realized it was going to take the state a bit longer to return to normal, she said they pulled data from the Department of Social and Health Services.
"The data that we were able to pull from DSHS provides some kind of preliminary background check that still meets our federal requirements. So we were able to work with DSHS to pull that data, even without the DSHS having the latest information from the AOC," said Nancy Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said even with the systems back up and running, DCYF will still utilize DSHS systems for a little bit longer, erring on the side of caution.
As of now, the AOC told KREM all systems are back with the exception of Blake Refund Bureau and e-filing for Appellate Courts who have alternative ways for attorneys to submit documents. They say they are holding off to minimize any potential disruptions until the network is stable.
The AOC stated in a press release "As we continue to bring up the system, it is anticipated that there will be intermittent disruptions as the network and its applications are highly interconnected and operating in a new technical environment."
The AOC did not explain what exactly the cybersecurity issue was. But, they confirmed there was not a detected breach in data and the event did not result in ransomware.
They say more details are to come in the state's Judicial Information System Committee Meeting in December.