BAE Systems outage halts BNC notices for all US bankruptcy courts since October 9

The Administrative Office of the US Courts confirmed on October 13 that BAE-operated BNC systems and websites are fully unavailable after the contractor reported the issue late October 9. Electronic filing notifications to attorneys remain operational, but National Creditor Registration Service and noticing functions are offline with no restoration timeline. Courts in multiple districts posted generic service interruption notices that omitted the security incident designation. Contractor control of core noticing infrastructure creates single-point dependency for the judiciary. Procurement records show BAE has held the BNC contract for years; the same pattern appears in other court systems where third-party platforms handle public-facing services. Related incidents include the 2023 Arizona court data theft affecting over one million records and repeated intrusions into the Supreme Court’s CM/ECF filing system. Restoration will require forensic confirmation that no data exfiltration occurred before reconnection. Courts must decide whether to shift to direct mail or alternative contractors. Expect CISA involvement if the incident is confirmed as ransomware or nation-state access, given the national scope of affected bankruptcy records.