Courts and Cyberattacks!: It’s Not “If” – It’s “When”

Threats from cyberattacks can be easily ignored by courts.  There are many rationalizations:

“Our court is too small to worry about cyberattacks”

“We have a great firewall that keeps everything out”

“Our employees change their passwords every three months just like clockwork”       

“Everyone has been told not to open suspicious email attachments”

KEVIN J. BOWLING, JD, MSJA, CCE is the Trial Court Administrator and Attorney Referee for the 20^th Judicial Circuit Court and the Ottawa County Probate Court in Ottawa County, Michigan. He is a Past President of the National Association for Court Management, Co-Chair of the COSCA/NACM Joint Technology Committee, and Chair of the DOJ Global Advisory Committee.  His work in the judicial system spans 40 years with time spent as a court manager, attorney, judicial educator and court consultant, including service in western Africa as Deputy Chief of Party for the Nigeria Justice Sector Assistance Project.

Kevin served for 20 years in a variety of positions with the Michigan Supreme Court, including State Judicial Educator and Regional Court Administrator.  Kevin received his B.A. in Political Science/Public Administration from Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island; a M.S. in Judicial Administration from the University of Denver College of Law; a J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, and is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management. 

Julia Hidy has been a Court Administrator for the Fayette County Probate/Juvenile Court in Ohio since 2011. Ms. Hidy cut her teeth in the court system as a deputy clerk for Probate/Juvenile Judge Nancy Hammond from 1996-1999. At that time, she left the court to work in a private law practice for Attorney David Bender from 1999-2005 with focus on DR, criminal, civil, bankruptcy, and probate work. Mr. Bender became Prosecuting Attorney in 2005 where Ms. Hidy left the practice to manage the Prosecutor Office staff, caseload, budget, grants, and Victim Witness Program. Judge David Bender took the Probate/Juvenile bench in May, 2011 when he appointed Julia as Court Administrator to oversee a staff of 12 made up of administrative staff and deputy clerks, the probation and diversion programs, and local Alternative School, and all other facets which burden two courts such as budget, inventories, grants, legislative changes, case management, etc..

Jorge Basto is the current Director for IT Programs in the Cherokee County, Clerk of Court’s Office and oversees the implementation of new software programs and processes. Prior to joining the Clerk’s Office, Jorge served as Georgia’s Chief Information Officer for 15 years with the Judicial Council’s Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC). Starting in 2005, he created the Judiciary’s first Information Technology Division standing up Development, Infrastructure, Reporting and Data Exchange services across the State. A champion of national standards, Jorge has served on the committees for the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems (OASIS), the Integrated Justice Information Systems (IJIS) and the Joint Technology Committee (JTC).

Montrella S. Jackson serves as CEO and Court Administrator for the Akron Municipal Court, a position she has held since 2012. She received a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts and subsequently earned a law degree from the University of Akron School of Law. She is a Board member of the Ohio State Bar Association Board of Directors and past president of the Board of Good Samaritan Hunger Center since 2006. With a passion for the wellbeing of children she sits on the Board of Trustees of Summit County Children’s Services. She also served eight years on the board of Women’s Network, Inc

Casey Kennedy joined OCA as the Director of Information Services in 2010. His team provides direct IT support for the Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Appeals, the 14 intermediate appellate courts and several judicial branch state agencies. Additionally, Casey manages the largest volume eFiling system in the known universe. Casey is also the lead OCA staff for the Judicial Committee on Information Technology or JCIT. The committee is appointed by the Supreme Court and makes recommendations and sets standards for court technology in Texas. Casey is currently the chair of the Court Information Technology Officer Consortium, a national organization of Court IT professionals. He holds a BA in Computer Science from The University of Texas at Austin.