Eleven Advanced Cybersecurity Tactics for Courts

Previous blogs presented an overview of the grave threat cyberattacks present to the justice community and essential strategies and tactics for preventing them. This blog offers intermediate and advanced strategies and tactics suggested by the Joint Technology Committee in its resource bulletin, “Cybersecurity Basics for Courts.” The committee is a joint effort of the Conference of State Court Administrators, the National Association for Court Management, and the National Center for State Courts.

Essential Tactics for Enhancing Cybersecurity in Today’s Justice Organizations

In my previous blog on cybersecurity, I provided a high-level perspective on the cybersecurity environment for justice organizations today. I noted that the environment is worrisome — it is a virtual certainty that cyberattackers, at this very moment, are looking for a way to infiltrate your organization’s networks and systems.

But I promised a progression (crawl, walk, run) that you can employ immediately to quickly begin thwarting cyberattackers and protecting your networks and systems, as well as the critical data and applications that run on them. This strategy is based on industry best practices and thought leadership to which MCP has actively contributed.^[1]

The Need for Cybersecurity in the Justice Sector Is Real

Travelling back from the National for Court Management annual conference, I am reflecting on a meeting of national court leaders from across the country that I attended. Of the dozen or so representatives at the table, five reported cyberattacks. For three of the jurisdictions, the attacks were debilitating.