Phone lines down in multiple courts across California after ransomware attack

LOS ANGELES — Several California courts lost their phone lines this week after a ransomware attack aimed at the state’s largest court in Los Angeles County.

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County hosts phone servers for courts in Shasta, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, Stanislaus and Colusa counties, said Melissa Fowler Bradley, executive director of Shasta County Superior Court. The Los Angeles courthouse was hit by the attack on Friday.

According to Bradley, the Shasta County courthouse is operating without phone, fax or text reminders because of the attack on the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system hosted in Los Angeles.

The other courts’ web pages all showed messages that their phone systems were down.

Jurors in Shasta County were urged to check online to see if they had to report for jury duty, as many typically call a recorded phone line that asks if they have to report for jury duty the next day.

Los Angeles County courts were hit by a ransomware attack that crippled its computer system, officials said. The court shut down its computer network when the attack was discovered Friday morning, and courthouses across the county were closed Monday.

All 36 courthouses reopened Tuesday, but some web pages and the ability to attend certain types of proceedings remotely were still unavailable Wednesday.

Bradley said business in Shasta County Superior Court has been proceeding as usual. She was told the phone system could be back online by Thursday, but that it is more likely to be over the weekend.

The attack on the Los Angeles courts was unrelated to the defective CrowdStrike software update that has roiled airlines, hospitals and governments around the world, officials said said in a statement Friday.

Ransomware attacks involve holding the target’s computer or computer system hostage by encrypting files and demanding payment to restore access.