Cook County Circuit Court website is back online after weeks-long outage caused by violation – CBS Chicago

CHICAGO (CBS) – A computer breach at the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s website, first revealed by CBS 2 a month and a half ago, has finally been fixed.

CBS 2’s Jackie Kostek is still investigating and asking why it took so long and what is being done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

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Kostek spoke to the Executive Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office, and he admitted that the past six weeks have been as troubling and frustrating for their team as it has been for the lawyers and the public who could not access the reports. information from their online file. He said the landing page was working again, but there was still a lot of work to be done.

Attorney Robert Kezelis said that seeing the Clerk’s website back up and running was not much of a surprise, “rather a huge relief.”

This is because, for almost six weeks, lawyers and the public were unable to access critical information about their cases online.

“I immediately started checking my records to make sure that I didn’t miss any dates, or that a case was rejected, or that I have some other problem,” he said.

CBS 2 was the first to expose what the clerk’s office said was the maintenance of the website on August 13 was in fact a violation. So why did it take almost six weeks to get the site up and running again?

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“We had to acquire updated software, acquire updated platforms, run and update security so that the website was a more secure website than before we took office,” said Patrick. Hanlon, Executive Clerk.

Hanlon said the clerk’s administration discussed the website redesign before the breach, but prioritized updating its case management system, ordered by the Illinois Supreme Court.

“The Illinois Supreme Court wants us to have it done by the end of the year,” he said.

Hanlon said this deadline means the clerk’s office is now working on two side projects at once – restoring functionality to the existing website and integrating the case management system so that all case documents can be viewed. remotely by the public and lawyers.

“Sometimes you just have to rip off the bandage,” Hanlon said.

Is Hanlon confident that what they are building now will be able to withstand the cyber threats of the 21st century?

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“Offenders are offenders, but I believe we have the security in place to be… to rely on that trust,” he said.