"BAE Systems, Inc. operates the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) on behalf of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC),"
the vendor's spokesperson told The Register, as a cybersecurity incident forced the U.S. bankruptcy courts' central noticing system offline and halted distribution of court notices nationwide.
What the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC) described the outage as a "cybersecurity incident" and said the websites and systems that support the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC) were pulled offline while the vendor investigates. The AOUSC said the incident has made "all access to the BNC systems and websites that BAE operates on behalf of the judiciary and the related bankruptcy noticing process" unavailable. Among the specific domains named as unavailable were bnc.uscourts.gov, bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, notices.uscourts.gov, and the National Creditor Registration Service. The AOUSC also said the incident has halted the BNC's production and distribution of bankruptcy notices for bankruptcy courts.
How court operations are being affected, and the Eastern District of Texas' immediate order
The disruption affects the courts' ability to process both electronic and paper bankruptcy notices and applies to federal bankruptcy courts across the country. Despite the outage, courts have said they will continue to accept filings, open cases, and process documents, but warned of potential delays in the entry and service of notices and orders until the issue is resolved. The Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Texas said the issues began on October 9 and issued a general order extending, by an additional 30 days, any delay for cases filed on or after September 14 that have an active motion to stay. That court's order is one concrete administrative step taken to mitigate the immediate impacts of the outage on ongoing proceedings.
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End the scrambleBAE Systems' public response and coordination with the judiciary
BAE Systems — the UK-based company that operates the BNC on behalf of the AOUSC — confirmed the company was aware of a security incident isolated to the BNC system and said it had "taken immediate steps to address it." A BAE spokesperson told The Register the company is "coordinating closely with AOUSC on the response" and is "working to restore operations," language echoed in the judiciary's public announcement published on Thursday. Those statements identify BAE and the AOUSC as the primary parties managing remediation and recovery.
Context: other recent attacks on U.S. public-sector and court systems
Officials framed this disruption against a backdrop of recent intrusions involving U.S. public-sector targets. The source singled out a September attack on the FBI by the group ShinyHunters as a high-profile incident, and cited a confirmed attack on the Arizona Judicial Branch's court systems "around the same time." In that Arizona case, officials said "criminal hackers or their bots" stole personal data and backup court files. The AOUSC itself said in August 2025 that it had been stepping up cybersecurity measures after increased targeting of its case management system — a development the court flagged more than a year before this October incident.
What this means for creditors, federal bankruptcy courts, and litigants
- Creditors and the National Creditor Registration Service: With the National Creditor Registration Service among the affected systems, creditors can expect delays in receiving official notices and in registering claims until BNC operations resume and backlog is processed.
- Federal bankruptcy courts: Courts nationwide must manage notice and service delays while continuing to accept filings and process documents; the Eastern District of Texas has already issued a 30-day procedural extension for certain motions to stay to reduce immediate harm.
- Debtors and litigants: Those with cases filed on or after September 14 who have active motions to stay are directly affected by the Eastern District's extension; more broadly, parties can anticipate slower entry and service of orders until the BNC resumes normal operations.
The outage underscores a concentrated operational dependency: a single vendor-managed system supports notice distribution for federal bankruptcy courts nationwide, and when that system is taken offline for security reasons the practical effects are immediate and administrative. BAE and the AOUSC have publicly committed to coordination and restoration; courts have begun taking short-term procedural steps to blunt harms to ongoing cases. How long restoration will take, and how notices and any backlog will be reconciled once services return, remain the immediate operational questions the parties have yet to resolve.
Source: The Register — Attack on BAE‑managed system disrupts US bankruptcy courts
