With WA courts’ online systems down, thousands of firearm sales on hold

Washington state courts’ computer systems have been down for nearly two weeks, disrupting the operation of local courts and preventing the completion of thousands of firearm sales.

The Administrative Office of the Courts announced Nov. 4 that the state’s Judicial Information Systems, Washington courts website and associated networks, and databases were taken offline after detecting “unauthorized activity.” Service is not expected to be fully restored until next week at the earliest.

“Good progress is being made, but it is extremely time consuming to bring our systems back up in a secure environment due to the complexity and interconnectivity of the networks,” Wendy Ferrell, associate director for the state Administrative Office of the Courts, said Tuesday.

On Facebook, court officials said Tuesday that so far “there is no evidence that any court or personal data has been accessed, altered or removed during the unauthorized activity that was detected.” They noted that reconnecting trial and appellate courts “safely to the services they need is our number one priority.”

Last Friday, the state Supreme Court issued an emergency order empowering local courts to adjust timelines for filing of cases, trials and sentencing. It also permits them to delay arraignments and first appearances of those facing charges but out of custody if the courts are unable to connect to the network and databases.

Meanwhile, since Nov. 1, completion of gun purchases has been held up because the Washington State Patrol cannot access the Secure Automated Firearms E-Check system to conduct mandatory background checks. Typically, the patrol’s Firearms Background Division does between 400 and 1,000 checks a day.

Chris Loftis, State Patrol’s director of communications, said the cybersecurity issues have significant ramifications for buyers and dealers.

“We know they have a right to get their background check. We know they have a right to get their firearms,” he said. “But the bridge is out. That’s the reality. It’s frustrating for the customers, for the dealers and for us.”

A gun rights group threatened Tuesday to sue if the problem isn’t remedied soon.

“This is simply unacceptable, and we will not tolerate it,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue.

“As the saying goes, ‘A right delayed is a right denied,’ and the state has denied untold numbers of citizens their right to obtain firearms for almost two weeks,” he said in a press release. “When the system is restored, we expect the WSP to work day and night to expedite background checks already on hold.”

The state patrol isn’t the only agency affected.

On Tuesday, the state Department of Children, Youth and Families issued a statement that the system outage “has been impacting our ability to complete background checks and likely will impact the hiring process for DCYF employees, providers, and foster parent applications.”

In its statement, the department said the system had been down since Nov. 1 and was expected to be restored by Tuesday. The court network and databases are needed for carrying out background checks. However, the agency can still access the National Crime Information Center for Child Welfare placements and child protective service investigations.

And the Washington State Gambling Commission is dealing with a similar challenge.

“The agency mission is to protect the public by ensuring gambling is legal and honest. Part of this is our review of applicants for licenses to ensure they qualify for licensure and there is no disqualifying information that may affect the approval of that license,” Troy Kirby, commission public information officer, wrote in an email. “That review is accomplished with access to information on the [Washington] court site.”

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