The Seminole County Clerk of Court is dealing with a cyberattack that knocked its website and phone systems offline, leaving the office accepting only cash and check payments while it works to restore service. The disruption began late Wednesday night, according to a source who spoke with investigators, and by Thursday the clerk's office was scrambling to keep operations running without its usual digital tools.
According to clickorlando.com, a source indicated the hack occurred late Wednesday night, though the clerk's office itself characterized the disruption publicly only as “technical issues” affecting its website and phones. The office told the outlet that its locations were open Thursday with limited services, and that it was only accepting cash and check payments at this time. Meanwhile, FOX 35 Orlando reported that the Seminole County Clerk of Court closed its offices on Thursday after its system was targeted in a cyberattack, officials said — a version of events that conflicts with the open-with-limited-services account. Hoodline could not independently verify which account reflects the office's actual operating status on Thursday.
Office Cuts Off Outside Access While Investigating
A follow-up report from the same outlet described the incident in starker terms, saying the clerk's office reported a breach affecting its phone systems and website. As a precaution, the office cut off outside internet access while it investigated, the report states. The clerk's office said it found no ransomware and no compromised information, suggesting that whatever breach occurred did not result in confirmed data theft.
Seminole County's clerk handles court records, filings and payments for residents across the county, making any extended outage to its website and phones a headache for anyone trying to pay fines, access case information or reach the office by phone. The cash-and-check-only policy at office locations points to just how disruptive the systems failure has been to routine business, even as officials work through the investigation.
A Separate Breach Raises Questions, But No Confirmed Link
The clerk's cyberattack surfaced the same week Florida's Department of Education disclosed a separate breach involving its financial aid website, which may have exposed the Social Security numbers of students among the nearly 5 million people affected, according to the same report. The two incidents involve entirely different state systems, and nothing in the available reporting ties the Seminole County breach to the Department of Education's financial aid site. The timing, however, lands amid broader warnings about government cybersecurity in Florida.
The Florida League of Cities has said cybercrime is on the rise and that local governments across the country have become targets, while Cyber Florida at USF has described the state's critical infrastructure as facing escalating cyber threats that put essential services at risk. Florida also maintains a state-level cybersecurity incident reporting resource through its Digital Service. Court systems elsewhere have faced similar disruptions; a cyberattack hit court services across Georgia and impacted operations for nearly a week after an FBI tip warned clerks' offices, as reported by WSB-TV.
No restoration timeline has been confirmed for the Seminole County Clerk's website or phone systems, and key details remain unresolved, including how the breach occurred and whether any additional information was affected beyond what officials have disclosed. Residents with pressing court or payment needs should expect continued limited service until the office's digital systems are fully back online.
