By Staff Reporter |

More than one million Arizonans had personally identifiable or sensitive information stolen from the state’s court system during a recent cyberattack.

New information from the Arizona Supreme Court reveals the attack began when a court employee fell for “a common phishing attack” and clicked a malicious link in an email. 

The court has set up a portal enabling Arizonans to check whether their information was accessed in the cyberattack. Individuals impacted may also receive official court communication via email from no-reply@courts.az.gov or via text from 83958. 

The information accessed by the attackers did not include information on jurors, witnesses, or court employees. No court records were deleted, altered, or erased according to the Arizona Supreme Court, and the attack won’t affect the progress or status of any pending case.

Sensitive information copied by attackers came from nearly 30,000 records involving active and inactive protective orders, as well as the Fines/Fees and Restitution Enforcement (FARE) Program which maintains Social Security numbers. Regarding the FARE Program, approximately 1.3 million individuals were impacted. 

The Arizona Supreme Court is encouraging individuals whose information was held within the FARE Program to put a hold or freeze on their credit files with the three major credit reporting agencies.

Alberto Rodriguez, Arizona Supreme Court spokesman, said the copied FARE Program data was from a backup server where it was highly compressed.

Rodriguez also said that there has been no evidence the stolen data has been rendered to be readable, and has not been used or shared.  

Additionally, more than 150,000 current and past Foster Care Review Board recommendation reports dating back to 2010 were copied in the attack. Addresses and phone numbers weren’t included in those copied reports. 

The Arizona Supreme Court announced in a September 25 press release that a cyberattack targeted the state court system and copied personally identifiable information for “many Arizonans.”

The cyberattack occurred the previous day, on September 24 at around 11:30 a.m. Court IT staff shut the attack down less than two hours after it was identified, according to the Arizona Supreme Court. 

Chief Justice Ann Scott Timmer called the attack “outrageous” and assured the public that she had pulled together a team to formulate a response to the breach. Timmer revealed that federal authorities are investigating the cyberattack, and that the court had contacted Arizonans whose data was targeted by the attackers.

“I personally spoke with the top-ranking FBI leader in the state, and I pledged our full commitment to supporting their investigation and minimizing the likelihood that the information will be used to further jeopardize Arizonans,” said Timmer. “We’re in touch with those affected and will share more information as soon as we’re able.” 

Rebecca Day, special agent in charge with the Phoenix field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), has coordinated with Timmer on investigating the attack. 

Authorities have yet to announce the entity or entities responsible for the cyberattack. 

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