A cybersecurity incident has halted the production and delivery of federal bankruptcy court notices nationwide, delaying communications to creditors and other parties while courts continue accepting filings and conducting other business.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts identified the outage as a cybersecurity incident Thursday. BAE Systems operates the Bankruptcy Noticing Center, which produces and sends notices for all federal bankruptcy courts.
The disruption began Friday, Oct. 9, according to court notices. Public warnings about the service interruption appeared Tuesday, before the judiciary identified it as a cybersecurity incident.
Both electronic and paper notices have been affected. Courts warned of delays in delivering notices and orders, including notices associated with meetings of creditors, and reported problems accessing creditor mailing lists.
In guidance issued Thursday, the Northern District of Texas said it would continue accepting filings, opening cases and processing documents. Scheduled hearings would proceed unless the court ordered otherwise.
Parties in that district could request deadline extensions or hearing postponements to address the disruption, the court said. Those requests could be made in writing or at a scheduled hearing.
It also directed users to an alternate way to retrieve creditor addresses through the electronic case filing system. The court cautioned that the resulting list did not include everyone who might require notice, such as debtors and trustees.
The judiciary said the affected systems included the center’s bankruptcy-notice websites and the National Creditor Registration Service, which supports access to mailing addresses.
Chip in once
If this reporting helped you, a one-time tip helps cover hosting, tools and future investigations.
Support us monthly
A small monthly pledge keeps independent coverage and our reader tools online for everyone.
The disruption follows a separate cyberattack that interrupted phone support for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s trucking registration services. Senture operates the affected contact center. Both incidents disrupted federal services delivered through outside contractors.
The judiciary’s disclosure did not identify an attack method or a responsible group and did not establish whether information was stolen.
The Administrative Office said it was coordinating with affected courts and BAE, which was investigating and working to restore operations. A restoration date remained unconfirmed Thursday.
