HACKED! Cook Cty Courts

By Kevin Lancaster, IDAgent

Exploit: Unsecured Server

Circuit Court of Cook County: Municipal Court System 

cybersecurity news represented by agauge showing severe risk

Risk to Business: 1.775 = Severe

An unsecured Elasticsearch server is the cause of a huge data exposure containing more than 323,277 Cook County court-related records. Researchers estimate that the database may have belonged to a specialist Cook County department of caseworkers working with people who needed additional help.

cybersecurity news represented by agauge showing severe risk

Risk to Business: 1.612 = Severe

The records contained PII such as full names, home addresses, email addresses, and court case numbers and notes on the status of both the case and the individuals concerned. Criminal, family and immigration cases are in the mix. This data could be used to mount an array of attacks like blackmail, identity theft and spear phishing attempts.

Customers Impacted: Unknown

How it Could Affect You: Failing to take a simple step to secure a server that contains sensitive information doesn’t speak well to an organization’s commitment to cybersecurity.

To learn more about how you can eliminate/mitigate these kinds of threats to your organization, call 239.790.4479 and speak to one of our security specialists today.