BAE Systems Cyber Incident Halts US Bankruptcy Court Notices for One Week

A cybersecurity incident at BAE Systems Inc., a subsidiary of the British defense contractor, has disabled the Bankruptcy Noticing Center for US federal courts. The disruption began on October 9 and has prevented the nationwide distribution of official bankruptcy notices, messages to creditors, and deadline notifications.

The Administrative Office of the US Courts confirmed that BAE Systems IT infrastructure supporting the Bankruptcy Noticing Center was impacted by the security event. Consequently, all access to BNC systems and websites operated by BAE on behalf of the judiciary is unavailable. This includes key domains such as bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, and notices.uscourts.gov.

Operational Impact and Scope

The Bankruptcy Noticing Center is responsible for sending notices for every federal bankruptcy court in the United States. The incident has halted the production and distribution of these essential documents. According to Security Affairs, the cyber incident took the center offline for a week, stopping every bankruptcy court in the US from sending notices.

Reuters reported that several online services supporting federal bankruptcy systems went offline following the incident involving the court contractor. The US judiciary emphasized that this is not a minor service disruption but a complete halt of the notification system used by federal courts across the country.

Affected Services and Workarounds

Attorneys and creditors are unable to access the National Creditor Registration Service due to the outage. This prevents users of the electronic filing system from generating the creditor mailing lists required to serve documents properly. Courts are still accepting new case filings, and electronic notifications to registered attorneys continue to be sent.

However, any process tied directly to the noticing pipeline has been inactive since last Thursday. The inability to generate mailing lists disrupts the standard workflow for serving legal documents to creditors in ongoing bankruptcy cases. The full extent of the data impact remains unclear as investigations continue.

What should you do?

Security professionals should monitor official judiciary statements for updates on the restoration of BNC services. Legal teams should verify alternative methods for serving notices if the electronic system remains unavailable. Organizations should review their incident response plans for third-party contractor failures.

What to do and how to stay safe: BAE Systems

• Monitor official judiciary announcements for updates on the restoration of Bankruptcy Noticing Center services.
• Verify alternative methods for serving legal notices if the electronic notification system remains unavailable.
• Review incident response plans to address disruptions caused by third-party contractor security failures.
• Ensure local records of creditor contact information are up to date for manual distribution if needed.

Step-by-step guide: How to Remove Data from Data Brokers: The Manual Cleanup Process

General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.

Frequently asked questions

What caused the outage of the US Bankruptcy Noticing Center?

A cybersecurity incident at BAE Systems Inc., the contractor operating the center, caused the disruption.

When did the Bankruptcy Noticing Center go offline?

The center has been offline since October 9, halting notice distribution for a week.

Are US bankruptcy courts still accepting new filings?

Yes, courts are still accepting new case filings and sending electronic notifications to registered attorneys.