OLYMPIA, Wash. — Last month’s cyberattack on Washington state’s court computer network did not compromise any private information, but it was close to being much worse, officials said Friday.
In a presentation to court officials across the state, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) said the breach has been linked to an employee who clicked on a pop-up ad on a private website.
“The cybersecurity vendor engaged by AOC praised our team for making all the right decisions at the right time to prevent what could have been a catastrophic attack, or event,” said Vonnie Diseth, AOC’s director of the Information Services Division.
Diseth detailed the October cyberattack of the network to members of the state’s Judicial Information System Committee Friday morning.
“That was kind of scary,” said committee member and Washington State Supreme Court Justice Barbara Madsen at the end of the public portion of the presentation.
The cyberattack temporarily disrupted state services for more than two weeks, impacting gun sales, background checks, and foster parent approvals.
Head of cybersecurity for AOC, Kevin Ammons, said the attack originated when a court system employee visited a legitimate website that had been previously compromised. The website contained a malicious pop-up ad designed to infect computers.
"They had a weakness where they put in a piece of software that anybody who visited would throw a pop-up," Ammons explained. "If you didn't use a specific way to get out of that pop-up, it was going to infect your computer."
Ammons said the state disconnected the impacted network from the Internet before any private data was accessed.
“We were basically on knife edge. It literally could have been minutes, it could have been hours, we don't know, but we were at a vulnerable point where if we did not make the decision, it would have ended far worse,” said Ammons.
He said the state has already made upgrades to try and prevent the next attack.
"The people on the wrong side are constantly looking for new and interesting ways to attack, and they are extremely intelligent and they are extremely motivated."