Florida's First Judicial Circuit announced on October 2, 2023 that it had suffered a cyberattack that would significantly affect court operations. The circuit covers courthouses in Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties in the state's panhandle.
The court said it responded quickly, shut down systems to reduce the risk to sensitive information and opened an investigation. Judges prioritised essential proceedings while other hearings were cancelled or rescheduled and related operations were paused for several days from October 2. Facilities themselves stayed open. The circuit said certain applications used by the courts were affected but that the clerks' records and data were not compromised.
A week later the ALPHV group, also known as BlackCat, added the First Judicial Circuit to its dark web extortion site. The gang claimed it had obtained personal details including Social Security numbers and resumes belonging to court employees and judges, along with a comprehensive map of the court's network containing local and remote service credentials. StateScoop reported the gang put the total at roughly two terabytes of files.
The court had not verified ALPHV's claims when the listing appeared, and no ransom demand was made public. Appearance on a leak site typically indicates that extortion negotiations have stalled or never started.