BAE Systems Cybersecurity Incident Disrupts Bankruptcy Court Operations Across the U.S.

A cybersecurity incident at defense contractor BAE Systems has taken offline the systems that send bankruptcy notices for every federal bankruptcy court in the U.S. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts disclosed the disruption on October 15, 2026.

BAE Systems IT and websites that support the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) were hit by the incident. The BNC produces and transmits bankruptcy notices for all federal bankruptcy courts nationwide. BAE Systems operates the BNC systems and websites on behalf of the Federal Judiciary.

BAE Systems cyber incident

According to disclosures published by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the agency has been in contact with the affected courts and is coordinating with BAE Systems. BAE is investigating and working to restore operations.

Access to the BNC systems and the BAE-operated websites is unavailable. The same applies to the related bankruptcy noticing process. The incident has also halted the BNC’s production and distribution of bankruptcy notices for bankruptcy courts.

Bankruptcy notices tell creditors, debtors and trustees about filings, hearings, deadlines and case outcomes. A halt in distribution can delay creditors’ awareness of those events.

The judiciary’s statement does not say how the delay will affect court deadlines, so affected parties should watch for guidance from their local court.

The incident also shows third-party risk. The judiciary outsources part of its noticing infrastructure to a contractor, so a compromise or outage at the vendor can disrupt court operations in every district at once. Judiciary systems have been a target before, which keeps attention on vendor security.

The judiciary has not disclosed several key details, including the nature of the incident, such as ransomware, intrusion or data theft, the threat actor behind it, whether any data was accessed or exfiltrated, any indicators of compromise, and a timeline for restoration.

No CVE, malware family or attribution has been published. Treat any claims on those points as unverified until BAE Systems or the judiciary confirms them.

Creditors, attorneys and trustees should not rely on automated BNC notices while the outage lasts. They should check dockets directly through the court’s case management systems and contact the relevant bankruptcy clerk’s office for deadline guidance.

Be wary of phishing. Attackers often exploit outages by sending fake “restored notice” emails or spoofed uscourts.gov links. Users should go to official court websites by typing the address directly and should avoid unsolicited attachments or links claiming to be bankruptcy notices.

Organizations that depend on outsourced government-service providers should review vendor access, segmentation and incident-notification clauses.

This is a developing story. The article will be updated when BAE Systems or the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts shares more information.