July 3 – The New Mexico Public Defender’s Office was the victim of “a significant cybersecurity breach” last week that could impact criminal proceedings and the security of client information.
The agency announced the attack in a news release Wednesday afternoon. Maggie Shepard, a spokeswoman for the statewide offices, said officials did not know exactly how the attack occurred, but that the breach was discovered on June 27.
Clients of the Law Offices of the Public Defender must call the office or visit in person, as email services for the entire office are down, Shepard said. She did not have an estimate for when the office’s email would be up and running again.
The hack has prompted the firm’s attorneys to revert to a “paper-based system” for court documents, Shepard said. Instead of sending motions and letters by email, attorneys and their staff have been physically filing the documents with the court.
“Our lawyers now have to be very flexible and find every possible way to make our clients’ cases run as smoothly as possible,” she said.
Shepard said it “does not appear” that any personal customer or employee information was stolen in the hack, but authorities are still investigating the incident.
“We are responding to this security breach as an emergency and are doing our utmost to protect our clients and our partners in court,” Chief Public Defender Ben Baur said in the press release. “Our primary focus is to protect the confidential information of our colleagues and those we represent and to restore our systems to full functionality.”
