Top official says Kansas courts need at least $2.6 million to recover from cyberattack
TOPEKA, Kan. — The Kansas court system needs at least $2.6 million in additional resources to recover from an October cyberattack that prevented electronic filings and blocked online access to documents for weeks, the state’s top judicial official told the House on Tuesday. legislators.
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Marla Luckert included the figure in a written statement ahead of her testimony before a joint meeting of the Kansas House and Senate judiciary committees. The Republican-controlled Legislature must approve the funding, and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly must also sign off on it.
Luckert’s written statement said the courts needed the money not only to cover the costs of bringing multiple computer systems back online, but also to pay vendors, improve cybersecurity and hire three additional cybersecurity officers. She also said the price tag could increase.
“This amount does not include a number of things: the repair costs that we will incur but cannot yet estimate; notification fees that will be spent to notify individuals if their personally identifiable information has been compromised; and any services, such as credit monitoring, that the branch may decide to provide to the victims,” Luckert’s statement said.
The attack took place on October 12. Judiciary officials have blamed a Russia-based ransomware group. They say it has stolen data and threatened to post it on a dark website if its demands are not met.
Judiciary officials did not explain the attackers’ demands. However, they confirmed earlier this month that no ransom had been paid after responding to an Associated Press request for invoices since October 12, which showed the same.
Luckert said little about the cost of the cyberattack during Tuesday’s joint committee meeting and did not mention the $2.6 million figure. She and other judiciary officials also met privately for about 15 minutes with the House of Representatives committee to discuss more sensitive security issues.
“The forensic investigation is ongoing,” she said during her public testimony before both committees.
Luckert said the court costs include purchasing a new firewall and software and hardware. She said the court included the three new cybersecurity jobs in the proposed budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, but now wants to be able to hire them in April, May or June.
State Rep. Stephen Owens, a Republican from rural central Kansas who serves on both the House Judiciary and Budget committees, said the courts are asking for “an awful lot of money” because of the cyberattack.
“That said, I also think we need to prioritize cybersecurity,” he said after Tuesday’s meeting. “We must prioritize protecting the information we store on behalf of Kansans.”
In addition, Kelly is requesting $1.5 million to staff a 24-hour, 12-person cybersecurity operations center, hire an official to oversee the state’s data protection strategy and hire someone to establish a statewide data privacy program.