Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania courts say no ransom was paid in cyberattack, and attackers never sent a demand
Pennsylvania’s state courts agency said Thursday that it never received a ransom demand as part of a cyberattack that briefly shut down some of its online services earlier this month and prompted a federal investigation.
The attack, called a “denial of services” attack, on the website of the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts disabled some online portals and systems that were all fully restored this week, officials said.
The attack didn’t compromise any data or stop the courts from operating on a normal schedule, officials said.
A courts agency spokesperson said officials there never received a ransom demand from the attackers, never had any communication with the attackers and never paid anything to meet any sort of demand.
The state Supreme Court’s chief justice, Debra Todd, said a federal investigation was continuing.
Neither the courts nor the FBI or the federal government’s lead cybersecurity agency, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, have identified the attacker. There have been no apparent claims of responsibility.
In a statement, Todd said the “significant and serious” attack was “orchestrated by a faceless and nameless virtual opponent who was intent on attacking our infrastructure and orchestrating a shutdown of our state judicial system.”
“These anonymous actors attempted to undermine our mission to make justice accessible and to shutter the operation of the statewide court system,” Todd said.
The war with Iran could start impacting your wallet as soon as today.
Jim Garrity from AAA East Central says oil prices are up.
“They’re hovering around $72. They were pretty consistently around $65, $66 for a while,” he said.
Nationally, AAA said the average for a gallon of regular sits at about $3, up approximately six cents from last week.
In Pennsylvania, it’s around $3.12 a gallon, and in the Pittsburgh region, it’s around $3.24 a gallon. That’s actually down about four cents from last week.
Garrity added that gas prices this time of year would already be increasing, usually because of higher demand for the warmer months and the production of the summer blend of gas used for those months.
The impacts of what’s happening in Iran may not be immediate, which could be part of why our region and the state overall have not seen a spike yet, he said.
“It could be a couple of days later. It could be up to a week later,” Garrity said.
A lot of people are watching what happens with the Strait of Hormuz. Iran borders it to the north, and 20% of the world’s oil goes through it.
Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, and China gets a lot of that oil.
“If there is an impact there, you could see oil start to come in from other parts of the world, which has a downstream effect on [the United States],” Garrity said.
One way you can save on gas if prices increase in our area is by slowing down.
“When you drive faster every five miles, over 50 miles an hour, your fuel efficiency is going down,” Garrity said. “You’re making the car work harder, making the gasoline consumption less effective.”
Garrity added that in 2022, when our area and many others saw some of the highest gas prices ever recorded, people changed their driving habits.
“We saw people make seemingly permanent changes to their driving behaviors, driving less in general, consolidating trips,” he said.
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