On October 15, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts published a notice titled “Cybersecurity Incident Disrupting Bankruptcy Court Operations.” It says BAE Systems IT and websites supporting the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) “have been impacted by a cybersecurity incident.”
The BNC produces and transmits bankruptcy notices for all federal bankruptcy courts around the country, and BAE Systems operates its systems and websites on behalf of the Federal Judiciary. All access to those systems is now unavailable, including bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, notices.uscourts.gov, and the National Creditor Registration Service. Production and distribution of bankruptcy notices has halted nationwide.
The disruption actually started October 9. The Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas said it was advised by the courts’ administrative office that BAE Systems “experienced a service disruption affecting the processing and delivery of electronic and paper bankruptcy notices nationwide” beginning that day.
Reuters, BleepingComputer, and The Register all covered the story on October 16. A BAE Systems spokesperson said Friday the company is “aware of a security incident that is isolated to the BNC system,” has taken immediate steps to address it, and is “coordinating closely” with the courts. BAE Systems Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of British defense contractor BAE Systems, operates the BNC on behalf of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
Are the courts still open?
Yes. This part matters, because the outage sounds bigger than it is. Bankruptcy courts are still accepting filings, opening cases, and processing documents. Hearings are proceeding.
What is broken is the notice pipeline: the generation and delivery of bankruptcy notices, plus access to creditor mailing lists (the mailing matrix / List of Creditors in CM/ECF). The Eastern District of Texas warned of possible delays in the entry and service of notices and orders, and in the service of 341 notices (creditors’ meetings).
One thing still works normally: Notices of Electronic Filing (NEFs), the separate CM/ECF email alerts, continue to go out as usual.
What should I do if I’m involved in a bankruptcy case?
If you’re a creditor, debtor, or attorney in a pending bankruptcy case, check your court’s website for alternate notice procedures and any deadline extensions, confirm your Notices of Electronic Filing are still arriving, and pull creditor lists through CM/ECF. Don’t assume a missed notice means nothing happened in your case.
- Check your bankruptcy court’s website for notices about the BNC outage and any alternate procedures it published.
- Confirm your Notices of Electronic Filing email alerts are still arriving, since these continue working normally.
- Pull the creditor mailing list through CM/ECF using your court’s workaround: Query, case number, then Creditor link.
- Watch for deadline extensions in your district; the Eastern District of Texas added 30 days to certain deadlines, but check your own court’s site.
- Contact the court clerk directly if you recently expected a bankruptcy notice and nothing arrived.
What we still don’t know
Three big questions have no answers yet. No restoration timeline has been given; the courts’ administrative office statement gives no date, and court notices say they have no estimated date or time for restoration. No data theft has been reported or confirmed; the statement does not say how the systems were compromised, whether any data was taken, or who is responsible. And the exact attack type is undisclosed. No official source has confirmed the attack type, and none has described it as ransomware.
In 2025, the federal judiciary said it was strengthening cybersecurity defenses after a cyberattack hit its electronic case management systems, and The Register reports the courts stepped up measures in August 2025 in response to increased targeting of its case management system.
Why this matters even if you’ve never filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy notices are how creditors learn a case exists and when they have to act — claim deadlines, creditors’ meetings, the works. With the center that sends those notices down since October 9, some creditors may simply not know a proceeding affecting their money is underway. That is the real risk here: not the breach itself, but the silence it creates.
