The gun-buying background check process is underway again after a two-week delay tied to a statewide computer system outage, the Washington State Patrol announced Monday.
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has been able to restore online services, the agency announced in a news release.
"WSP's secure automated firearms E-Check or SAFE system regained connectivity with AOC's data repository on Sunday afternoon after the suspension of data availability was caused by computer system security concerns," the release reads.
According to State Patrol, the agency receives an average of 700 background check requests each business day.
During the delay, they continued to do non-computer-related work "so that once data services were regained, delayed background checks could be completed quickly."
In the first eight hours after service was restored, WSP completed more than 6,500 of the backlogged checks, they said.
The Administrative Office of the Courts explained the outage in a series of updates on social media:
— Nov. 18: "The Administrative Office of the Courts is in the process of bringing up systems on the Washington Courts network, following successful work and testing throughout the weekend. We can confirm that there was no detected breach of data and the event did not result in ransomware, due to quick action taken to isolate and secure the network."
— Nov. 13: "Work is continuing to progress to restore the Washington Courts Network. At this time, we are cautiously optimistic that systems will be operational next week. Due to the interconnectivity of the network, all systems will be restored simultaneously once work has concluded."
— Nov. 12: "The Administrative Office of the Courts anticipates service interruptions to continue throughout this week, while work is ongoing to secure and reestablish the Washington Courts network. While analysis is ongoing, there is no evidence that any court or personal data has been accessed, altered or removed during the unauthorized activity that was detected."
This story was originally published November 19, 2024, 12:23 PM.
___
(c)2024 The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.)
Visit The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.) at www.theolympian.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
