A cyberattack on Arizona’s court system resulted in the personal information of more than a million people being copied from court records, with the Arizona Supreme Court saying data dating back as far as 30 years was affected. The breach appears to have begun after a court employee clicked a malicious link in an email. The compromised data includes about 1.3 million records tied to unpaid court fees, fines and restitution, and stretches back up to three decades.
In addition to individual court records, attackers reportedly accessed nearly 30,000 active and inactive orders of protection and about 150,000 foster care reports dating from 2010. The court’s technology team detected the intrusion and shut it down on a backup server roughly two hours after discovery on 24 September. Since then, affected individuals have been notified.
Court officials emphasised there is no evidence that the information has been used or shared, and they said the breach has not delayed or affected court proceedings. No records of jurors, witnesses or court employees were stolen, and no data was altered or deleted according to the spokesperson and ongoing investigation.
The incident underscores the risk of phishing and credential misuse in public sector systems. The investigation is continuing, with authorities tracing how access was gained and what specific data was exfiltrated, while the court works to bolster its resilience and breach response following the incident.