The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), with funding from the State Justice Institute (SJI), launched a national initiative to strengthen state courts readiness for cyberattacks and technical disruptions through Cybersecurity and Disaster Recovery Workshops. These regional sessions (first virtual and then in-person) bring together judges, administrators, IT leaders, and communications staff to enhance preparedness, recovery, and continuity capabilities.
The first workshop was held in September 2024, and sessions have now been completed in four of five regions nationwide. The final workshop will take place in Rhode Island in April 2026. The most recent session, hosted in St. Louis, Missouri, included participation from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. Earlier workshops engaged participants from Alaska, Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico, Northern Mariana Islands, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Virginia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Each workshop follows a collaborative team-based approach, bringing together a judicial officer, IT leadership, court administrator, public information officer, emergency manager, and general counsel to collaborate through structured exercises that test and strengthen cybersecurity and disaster recovery plans. As part of each workshop, participants receive education and guidance, along with a court focused workbook and template designed to help courts create or refine incident response plans found here: The 2025 Cybersecurity and Disaster Recovery Workshop Workbook.
Pictured: Matt Brandes, Data Center & Enterprise Services Manager; Patrick Brooks, Director, Information Technology Services; Rick Morrisey, Deputy State Courts Administrator; Chief Justice W. Brent Powell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri; and Natalie Wilson, Information Security Manager; from the Missouri State Courts participate in a cybersecurity tabletop exercise.
“These workshops, and especially the tabletop exercises and workbook have set the standard for effective court focused cybersecurity education.”
– Shay Cleary, NCSC
“I thought the interaction between the NCSC, CIS, and State Court agencies was compelling and highly informative.”
-Participant from post event survey
This collaborative effort between NCSC, the Center for Internet Security (CIS), and the Chief Information Technology Officers Consortium (CITOC) is helping courts nationwide improve resilience and ensure continuity of essential justice services.
October 1, 2022
In 2020, the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) received a SJI grant to assess the court’s access to and use of mental health and substance use recovery services within the community. Funding allowed the Crime and Justice Institute (CJI) to conduct an assessment of strengths, opportunities and challenges that judges, court personnel and …
September 1, 2022
The emergence of COVID-19 has had widespread effects throughout the court system and quarantine orders slowed operations. The Supreme Court of Ohio anticipated an influx of evictions and foreclosure filings in Ohio’s trial courts, as well as a backlog of civil cases. Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor directed the Office of Court Services to convene stakeholders …
August 1, 2022
King County, Washington, was ground zero for the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The Washington State Supreme Court suspended most court operations in all courts on March 18, 2020. Acknowledging access to justice is of critical importance, King County Superior Court (KCSC) leadership vowed to continue to hold matters on all …
July 1, 2022
Juvenile court judges are the most important public figures in the juvenile justice system–their decisions impact whether hundreds of thousands of youth each year become court involved and for how long, whether they are involuntarily removed from their homes and communities, and the services they receive. Despite the importance of these judges, states and locales …
June 1, 2022
Each county in Mississippi contains its own Justice Court where community members bring legal actions to settle local, small-dollar disputes. Court regulations and policies vary in each county, and they can be incredibly confusing for Mississippians to navigate, almost all of which are pro se litigants. The COVID-19 pandemic created more variation as judges and …
May 2, 2022
Participating in the judicial system can be traumatic and stressful. Mediation is a tool used for resolving many judicial matters, thus mediators often encounter disputants experiencing the worst time of their lives. With this in mind, Texas Dispute Resolution System™ (TDRS) began a process to enhance their mediators’ skills and knowledge when engaging disputants during …