Kansas Courts cyberattack impacting both sides of state line
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A spokeswoman for the Kansas Judicial Branch says the Kansas District Court Public Access Portal that allows anyone to search for cases over the internet is back online.
The portal was affected by a cyberattack announced by the branch in fall 2023.
The electronic court (eCourt) case management system companies use when performing background checks also was affected by October’s cyberattack. Attorney David McDonald said this has become a bi-state issue.
“I’ve dealt with Missouri folks who are having issues getting jobs because their background checks aren’t coming back because of old Kansas cases,” he said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday.
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One woman who may have been impacted by the cyberattack at the end of last year was Kansas City, Missouri, resident Jovanna Graham.
She went to work for an employer who used the background check company Sterling. She had problems initially getting hired, claiming the Unified Government of Wyandotte County was initially holding up the background checks.
“That is what Sterling had told us,” Graham said in an interview with FOX4 Tuesday.
“They were telling us that it was KCK. I said, ‘Well I haven’t lived in KCK in over ten years. I don’t have nothing going on. I said, ‘The only thing that would show up would be Missouri and that would be a traffic ticket. That’s it.’ So, Sterling was the one that was saying that KCK was holding up the background.”
District courts, including Wyandotte County’s, are administered by the Kansas Courts or the Kansas Judicial Branch, not the Unified Government of Wyandotte County.
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The Judicial Branch’s Public Information Officer Lisa Taylor would not answer whether background checks should be able to be completed now. She would also not say whether her group paid a ransom to get the portal back online.
McDonald represents Leavenworth resident Lyle Workman. FOX4 spoke to him about the background check issue Dec. 26. Workman’s looking for a job and said he would have been employed in the middle of December had his background check gone through.
McDonald said Workman can’t get his background completed because of this court website outage.
“Several people who are you know, like grandparents and parents haven’t been able to get jobs because of these background checks, and in some instances, they’re being called in front of the court to make financial payments when they can’t get background checks to get the jobs to make the money to make the payments,” McDonald said.
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“It’s crazy that we’re in this cycle of, ‘I want to work. I’m prohibited, and I believe by the court system’s lack of documentation or something. That’s what’s directly prohibiting me from working and paying obligations.'”
Taylor said Wyandotte, Miami and Douglas’ eCourt case management systems have been restored. Johnson County is on its own system and was not affected by October’s cyberattack.
