Services are closed to protect online systems
The Gilmer County Clerk of Superior Court has several online services shut down in response to a cybersecurity threat.
“[People] just need to know that all their deeds and plots and all the paperwork, all their filings, the old historical stuff is safe,” Clerk of Superior Court Amy Johnson said. “We’re just getting backed up on the new filings.”
There aren’t many details on the attack, she said.
The FBI contacted the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA) to warn of a “credible and imminent” cybersecurity threat.
The GSCCCA handles infrastructure and technology, online systems and more for Georgia court clerks.
As a precautionary measure, all of Georgia’s 159 superior court clerk online services have been preemptively shut down since Monday, Nov. 24. As of writing, the online services are still shut down. It’s not clear when they will open again.
The FBI didn’t include the origin of the threat, how long the threat might last or what the threat might be looking for, Johnson said.
It could be possible hackers are hoping to get property information they could use for deed fraud, she said.
“There’s no personal information we keep,” Johnson said.
This shutdown might inconvenience those hoping to close on real estate in the next few days and it will cause delays when systems come back online. But overall, it won’t cause long-term problems.
“When it does come back online, every clerk in the state of Georgia is going to be so backed up,” Johnson said.
For superior court clerks, getting targeted by a hack is unusual, she said. During her 17 years serving as Gilmer’s Superior and Juvenile Court Clerk, this has never happened before.