BAE Systems Cyber Incident Halts U.S. Bankruptcy Court Notices

A cyber attack on defense contractor BAE Systems has knocked out the Bankruptcy Noticing Center (BNC), the system that produces and distributes notices for all federal bankruptcy courts in the United States. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said the incident took the BNC’s main websites offline, including bnc.uscourts.gov and bankruptcynotices.uscourts.gov, and stopped the creation of paper and electronic notices since October 9.

Impact on creditors and deadlines

The outage means creditors, debtors and trustees no longer receive automated notices about filings, hearings or deadlines. Courts continue to accept new filings and process paperwork, but parties are urged to check case dockets manually and contact clerk offices for guidance. The U.S. Courts warned that the list of addresses available through the BNC’s electronic program may be incomplete, so some recipients might miss notices. Users are also cautioned against phishing emails that could appear during the disruption.

BAE Systems is investigating the incident and working with the Administrative Office to restore services, but no timeline has been released. The event underscores the risk of outsourcing critical court functions to contractors. While no evidence of data exfiltration has been disclosed, the incident highlights the need for stronger vendor security and incident‑notification safeguards in the federal judiciary.