Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts

Summary

A cybersecurity incident at BAE Systems disrupted the U.S. Bankruptcy Noticing Center, halting the production and electronic and paper delivery of bankruptcy notices for all federal courts nationwide beginning on October 9, 2026, as confirmed by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

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Description

The incident affected the Bankruptcy Noticing Center, a system operated by BAE Systems on behalf of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The BNC produces and distributes bankruptcy notices to creditors and other parties, covering both electronic and paper notifications for all federal bankruptcy courts in the United States. Service disruption began on or before October 9, 2026, when the production and distribution of notices stopped nationwide. The disruption also made the BNC websites unavailable, including bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, notices.uscourts.gov, and the National Creditor Registration Service.

On Tuesday, October 13, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court website posted a notice describing a nationwide service interruption. That initial notice did not identify the event as a cybersecurity incident. Despite the interruption of the notification service, the federal bankruptcy courts continued accepting new filings, opening cases, and processing paperwork. The outage nevertheless delayed the entry and service of notices and orders, and recipients could be affected where their addresses were not fully represented in the courts’ electronic filing records.

On October 15, the Administrative Office issued a statement identifying the event as a cybersecurity incident. The statement said the incident affected BAE Systems’ information technology and the websites supporting the BNC’s operations. It also said BAE Systems was investigating the incident and working to restore service, while the Administrative Office remained in communication with the affected courts. The statement did not provide a restoration estimate, identify a cause, or say whether information had been accessed.

BAE Systems separately stated that it was aware of a security incident isolated to the BNC system and had taken immediate steps to address it. The company said no systems outside the BNC had been affected. As of Friday, October 16, the BNC websites and the National Creditor Registration Service remained offline, and the production and distribution of bankruptcy notices had not resumed. No date for full restoration had been announced.

The Administrative Office’s October 15 statement was the first public announcement to characterize the disruption as a cybersecurity incident. At the time of the initial public statements, investigators had not publicly identified the attack method, the point of entry, the malware or tools involved, or whether an intrusion had enabled data theft. The announcements also did not identify a threat actor or campaign. No public evidence of ransomware, data exfiltration, or access to sensitive information had been reported, and the available technical indicators were limited to the affected domains.

Court operations continued through electronic filing and case-processing systems while the external notification infrastructure was unavailable. Clerk of Court Joe Falzone advised people serving documents to search the electronic filing system for creditor and party addresses and compare the resulting lists for missing entries. The Administrative Office warned that the court records might not contain addresses submitted through the BNC’s Electronic Bankruptcy Noticing program or the National Creditor Registration Service, meaning that some people entitled to receive notice could be absent from the available records. Courts also began issuing administrative adjustments in response to the disruption, including a general order from the Eastern District of Texas extending certain deadlines because of the outage.

The response remained focused on investigation, restoration, and continuity of court operations. BAE Systems continued working to bring the BNC back online, and the Administrative Office coordinated with affected bankruptcy courts. Until the notification systems were restored, bankruptcy notices and orders could not be produced and distributed through the normal BNC channels, creating nationwide delays in a core administrative function of the federal judiciary.

Sources

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