Suspected cyberattack outage continues at Port of Seattle, Washington courts

WASHINGTON — A statewide cyberattack outage continues to impact the Port of Seattle and Washington courts months after state officials were made aware of “unauthorized activity” on their information technology systems.

As of Monday, Nov. 4, the Port of Seattle announced that it is still impacted by the Aug. 24 cyberattack attack that caused chaos at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The airport website and online systems are still experiencing the ramifications of the outage in early November. The Port said its teams isolated critical systems and worked with third-party and federal partners to safely regain control of its systems and conduct testing. However, the investigation is ongoing, and the Port will continue providing updates throughout the matter, saying, “if we identify that the actor obtained employee or passenger information, we will carry out our responsibilities to inform them.”

The Port of Seattle/Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) website remains down due to the outage and has not been restored as of Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Prospective airport guests and travelers are asked at this time to not call the Washington Public Ports Association (WPAA) with the Port or airport questions and concerns. Instead, receive updates on multiple concerns from the Port’s corporate office here. For more information regarding additional resources and contacts, click here.

Not only are online systems down for the Port, but also for several Washington state courts. The statewide outage continues to affect courts in Thurston County, Monroe, Renton, Puyallup, Bainbridge, King County, Pierce County, Whatcom County, and Lewis County. In addition, municipal courts in the cities of Kent, Des Moines, Bothell and Lake Forest Park are affected and may have limited hearings.

The Thurston County District Court is experiencing an outage, affecting the way they handle hearings. It said that if you have an infraction hearing, you’re not required to appear and you will receive a new court data. If you have a misdemeanor or civil hearing, then you must appear for your scheduled hearing date. For more information, call the court at 360-786-5450.

The municipal court in the City of Monroe has limited services at its front counter due to the outage. The clerk’s office will remain open but it’s unable to accept in-person or online payments at this time. Those who have criminal case proceedings and probation appointments are recommended to go to their scheduled hearings. Traffic ticket hearings will proceed as usual.

The Renton Municipal Court is also currently operating with limited services as of Nov. 4. The front counter, traffic ticket hearings and criminal case proceedings are impacted as well. The public is asked to call the court at 425-430-6550 with questions or concerns.

The municipal court that serves the cities of Puyallup and Milton are still impacted and only essential court functions will be available. The public is encouraged to check for updates before appearing at the courthouse. Essential hearings, probation and community services will continue as scheduled.

The phone is currently down for city staff in the City of Bainbridge Island and the Bainbridge Island Municipal Court is currently operating with limited services as of Nov. 4. If you need to contact a city staff member or have an issue, please email: cityadmin@bainbridgewa.gov and we will forward your request to the appropriate department for follow-up. If you have a time-sensitive issue, please call 206-670-3919 or 206-580-6735.

The Monroe Municipal Court is also still affected. The court cannot accept in-person or online payments. Its hearing proceedings are experiencing similar limitations to most of the impacted Washington state courts.

Pierce County Superior Court said it doesn’t expect any significant impact and the court will be in normal operating status as of Nov. 4. The court will review the impacts of this outage and provide updates on its website.

The Washington State Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) is working to restore services. There is no estimated time for when the systems will be restored.

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