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Attorneys have had to ask for postponement of an untold number of criminal cases in the wake of the incident.
DENVER — The cyberattack on the Colorado State Public Defender’s Office’s computer network was ransomware – a ploy by hackers who block access to files and demand payment to unlock them.
The office confirmed the attack in a post on its webpage but did not disclose the nature of any demands made by the person who broke into the system.
> Video above from Feb. 12: Cyberattack disables Colorado public defender office computer systems
The office shut down the computer system, cutting access to criminal files, calendars and the online court filing system. It’s not clear when the system could be back online.
That has led to an unknown number of hearing postponements.
Spokesman James Karbach has not responded to specific questions from 9NEWS. However, a new post on the public defender’s office’s webpage described the effort to get the system back online as being in the “early stages” of what it described as “a time- and resource-intensive process.”
“We do not have a timeframe for when services will be restored,” the statement said.
It also said it’s not clear whether the hack has compromised information stored on the office’s computer network.
The Colorado State Office of the Public Defender has about 1,250 employees – 572 of them attorneys – and handles about 130,000 criminal cases annually.
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