Some “data files” held by the New Hampshire Supreme Court were accessed by unknown parties in March as part of a cybersecurity breach affecting courts in at least 11 different states. The material could include names, social security numbers and medical or insurance information from 2002 through 2015.
That news, released Friday, comes as Merrimack County government says it is still working to solve a “network security issue” which took down some services over a week ago. The Registry of Deeds is still not able to process items online.
The court breach involves software called C-Track, owned by West Publishing Corp. and used by many court systems as a case management system. The breach occurred in March, according to reports.
West Publishing says it discovered the unauthorized access on June 30 and determined on July 20 that some New Hampshire Supreme Court data was among the files accessed. The breach also impacted appellate and supreme courts in at least 10 other states that use C-Track.
To date, the New Hampshire Judicial Branch says it has not identified any New Hampshire data in the accessed files. Other parts of the state court system were not affected.
West Publishing has established a phone number and website for individuals seeking additional information: 1-833-918-5294 and https://www.ctracknotification.com.
It is unknown if the court breach is related to the issues at Merrimack County although that seems unlikely, as C-Track says it is only used by courts.
County officials have not said what caused the problem in Merrimack County, whether it was an internal failure of equipment or an external source that obtained access to some systems and interfered with operations.
“At this time, we can confirm that the systems are contained and there is no active threat in the environment. Over the coming days we anticipate that systems will be restored to service on a rolling basis,” said an official statement from the county on Friday. “We are coordinating with experts to prioritize our highest priority systems as we bring systems back online.”
