Hackers copied more than 150,000 confidential foster care review reports during a cyberattack on Arizona’s court system, Arizona Supreme Court spokesperson Alberto Rodriguez said Sept. 28.
The court system first announced the attack Sept. 25 and began notifying people whose information it believed had been stolen.
One notification reviewed by The Arizona Republic told a recipient their personal information was among the copied data.
The newest batch of data included information about children, their parents and the names and statements of people involved in their foster cases, Rodriguez said.
They do not contain addresses or phone numbers, he said.
The reports cover current and past cases dating to 2010, according to Rodriguez.
The court’s update
did not specify how many children or families were affected. The 150,000 figure counts reports, not individual children.
The Foster Care Review Board program operates within the Arizona Supreme Court’s Administrative Office of the Courts, and its citizen panels review children’s cases and recommend actions to juvenile court judges, according to the court’s website and Arizona Department of Child Safety policy.
The citizen panels also known as Foster Care Review Boards prepare the confidential reports after reviewing dependency cases. The reports are routinely shared with case participants, including parents, Rodriguez said.
DCS supplies case information and responds to the panels’ recommendations.
The reports were part of a second set of data copied during the attack, according to Rodriguez.
Officials notified DCS, attorneys representing children and parents, juvenile presiding judges and review board members, Rodriguez said. He did not say whether officials notified families directly.
Active dependency cases will not be affected, Rodriguez said.
The AZPoint protective order website was not compromised and remained safe to use, according to Rodriguez.
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Rey Covarrubias Jr. is a reporter for The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. Email him at: rcovarrubias@azcentral.com, and connect with him on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter) at @ReyCJrAZ.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona court cyberattack exposed records involving foster children
