CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Municipal Court is still struggling to return to normal three weeks after it was shut down by a cyber attack, according to a court employee.
RELATED: Cleveland courts hit by hackers to reopen Wednesday after 3-week shutdown
The employee said they do not have access to the internet, which makes it difficult to do their job, and that employees are forced to complete some tasks by hand instead of using the court's systems or online.
The employee also said the court is still in the process of updating computers with new security features and passwords.
The employee declined an on-camera interview.
The court's website is also still down.
Background checks
The cyber attack has also delayed background checks for workers and companies.
"I had to make phone calls and find out about it all by myself," Jeff Heisler said. He needed a background check so he could start a new job but is still waiting for Cleveland Municipal Court to complete the task.
He had been out of work for eight months due to medical issues and said he lost a week's pay because of the municipal court's delay.
"A week's pay is a week's pay," he said. "Not a lot of people can just afford to not get a week's pay."
After he made calls to figure out what to do, he learned all he had to do was go to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office instead.
"It literally cost me a $10 money order, and it was done in less than five minutes," he said. "But we didn't know that until we started doing some digging."
The court's response
News 5 Investigators have repeatedly requested an on-camera interview with the court's spokesperson, Ed "Flash" Ferenc.
In a text Monday, he wrote, "We have no comment at this time."
The Cleveland Municipal Court shut down all operations on Feb. 23 after the cyber attack was discovered.
During the shutdown, the court was able to conduct arraignments to move people out of the city's jail.
The court reopened on March 12.
RELATED: Cleveland Municipal Court reopens after cyber attack
It is still unclear who attacked the Cleveland Municipal Court, what they took, or how the hackers broke into the city's systems.
