SEATTLE, Wash. — The online system needed for the Washington State Patrol (WSP) to complete background checks has been restored.
The Administrative Office of the Courts says the system was fixed after a two-week delay in services.
WSP’s Secure Automated Firearms E-Check or SAFE system regained connectivity with AOC’s data repository on Sunday afternoon.
In the first eight hours of being back online, WSP says it completed over 6,500 background checks.
The agency says it typically receives an average of 700 requests each business day and continued to do the non-AOC-related work during the system’s delay. That legwork helped the remainder of the work go quickly to complete the checks once the system was restored.
The system outage was caused by a cyberattack on the state’s Judicial Information Systems earlier this month.
The hack, which occurred on Nov. 2, forced several court networks and websites offline, including the system that oversees the mandatory background checks for firearm sales and ownership.
Officials anticipate that it will take at least another week to catch up fully on the backlog of background checks.