Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wayback Machine: Ransomware Hits the TEXas Judiciary online

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If your bookmark for the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure on the Texas Courts Website no longer links you to the source you are seeking but instead gives you a 404 error, or if you’re searching for your favorite Research Guide on the Texas State Law Library website but the page is timing out, you may wonder why. On May 8, the Office of Court Administration, the IT service provider for the appellate courts and state judicial agencies within the Texas Judicial Branch, identified a serious security issue, which was later determined to be a ransomware attack. OCA was able to shut down the branch network, including websites and servers, to prevent further harm.

While the server problems are being addressed, a temporary website is providing access to coronavirus information including emergency orders, court guidance, and electronic hearing procedures. The latest Court news and other updates, including the statement released by the OCA, are also available on the temporary page, along with the @txcourts Twitter feed. The OCA took care to address concerns about essential services such as eFile Texas and reSearchTX, which, they explain, are cloud-based services unaffected by the ransomware attack. The courts and judicial branch agencies are continuing operations and ensuring that the filing of court documents will continue without interruption. If you need to access the resources on the original version of the website, follow the steps below.

Access the original Texas Judicial Branch website as it was captured by the Wayback Machine on April 10, 2020.

Access the original Texas Judicial Branch website as it was captured by the Wayback Machine on April 10, 2020.

Here’s the Hack

  • Go to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine website.

  • Type this URL into the search box: TXCOURTS.GOV

  • The page has been captured hundreds of times since 2012, and as most recently as April 10, 2020. Choose that date on the calendar.

  • Select one of the timestamp options, and you will link to the original Texas Courts homepage where most, if not all, of the webpages — including the PDFs they link to — are available.

Access, for example, the Texas Rules of Evidence. Download any number of forms, including Orders of Nondisclosure. As long as you access the site via the Wayback Machine, you will be able to view all captured pages. (What is the Wayback Machine? Learn more here.)

Hopefully, the Texas Judiciary and our good friends at the Texas State Law Library will be back up and running smoothly again soon! If you’re missing the State Law Library’s chat reference feature, try the link at Harris County Law Library, where we’ve partnered with the TSLL to provide real-time chat services. Your reliable State Law Library reference staff is available and continuing to provide services. We wish the OCA much luck in the investigation, remediation, and recovery of IT services for the Judiciary and the Texas State Law Library.

#StayHomeWorkSafe with Free Access to Westlaw Edge

The Stay Home Work Safe order in Harris County remains in effect until April 30. As we all do our part to stop the spread of COVID-19, access to digital legal research resources remains critical. That’s why we are pleased to report that Thomson Reuters is providing free access to Westlaw Edge for Harris County Law Library patrons!

Free Access to Westlaw Edge

To help you keep researching while you stay home and work safe, you can sign up for a free Westlaw Edge account that extends the typical 7-day trial to give you 20 hours of research through June 30, 2020. Edge is the latest research platform from Westlaw that integrates artificial-intelligence search capabilities with Thomson Reuter’s catalog of must-have titles and tools for legal researchers. Access Keycite, headnotes, annotations, and more legal research necessities for free while you work remotely. To get started, download the instructions:

Please note: if you’ve subscribed to Westlaw in the past or signed up for a trial account, the email address you used may not be eligible for this offer.

Keep Researching with free access to Lexis, HeinOnline, Fastcase, and more!

Westlaw joins a growing number of legal research database providers who are extending free access during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, we shared news about an offer from LexisNexis to make Lexis Advance database subscriptions available to all Harris County Law Library patrons. Additional options include:

Document Delivery from the Law Library’s Legal Research Databases

Even with free access to standard tools from Lexis at your disposal, not every copyrighted practice guide, form book, and treatise is available to you. Under normal circumstances, everyone has access to robust subscriptions from Lexis eBooks, Westlaw, Lexis Advance, HeinOnline, State Bar of Texas Practice Manuals, and more within steps of the courthouse on the Law Library’s research computers. To help maintain access while we’re all working remotely, our law librarians can make many of these materials available to you via email through our Virtual Reference Desk. If you need a document, let us know and one of our law librarians will provide it to you via email (subject to limitations set by the vendor) as soon as possible.