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BAE Systems Breach Knocks Out US Bankruptcy Court Notifications Nationwide

18 October 2026

A cybersecurity incident targeting systems operated by BAE Systems has taken down the US Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC), disrupting electronic bankruptcy communications across federal courts nationwide. The affected systems, which manage the production and distribution of bankruptcy notices, were pulled offline while BAE Systems investigates and works to restore operations. The incident, which began on 9 October, is the latest in a series of cyberattacks affecting US public sector organisations.

US bankruptcy courts are limping along after a cyberattack took down the systems that handle electronic notifications across the entire federal bankruptcy network.

The Administrative Office of the US Courts confirmed that the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) went dark following what it politely described as a 'cybersecurity incident.' BAE Systems runs the BNC infrastructure on behalf of the Federal Judiciary, and the company pulled the affected systems offline while it figures out what happened.

The outage is not trivial. Everything under the BNC umbrella is down: bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, notices.uscourts.gov, and the National Creditor Registration Service. Production and distribution of bankruptcy notices has stopped entirely, affecting federal courts across the country.

BAE's statement to The Register was precisely as informative as you would expect: 'We are aware of a security incident that is isolated to the BNC system and have taken immediate steps to address it. We are coordinating closely with AOUSC on the response.' Reassuring stuff.

The problems actually started on 9 October, a few days before the public announcement. The Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Texas quietly published a general order extending any active motion to stay by 30 days for cases filed on or after 14 September. Courts say they will keep accepting filings and processing documents, but delays in notices and orders are inevitable until the systems come back up.

The timing is awkward, even by the standards of US public sector IT. September saw ShinyHunters breach FBI systems in what became the most prominent of a recent string of federal incidents. Around the same period, Arizona's judicial branch confirmed its own court systems had been hit, with officials pointing to 'criminal hackers or their bots' stealing personal data and backup court files.

Bankruptcy proceedings depend heavily on timely notification to creditors. Every day the BNC stays offline is another day that process falls further behind.

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