Montana court filing system part of nationwide ‘data breach’

The Montana Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that the court’s backup data files were part of a nationwide breach earlier this year. 

Chief Justice Cory Swanson said in a press release that the Montana Office of Court Administrator was alerted by the company Thomson Reuters of unauthorized access to the files in the company’s C-Track case management system and electronic filing system used by the state’s court system. 

The state’s E-filing system is used by the Supreme Court, District courts, and some other lower courts.

“Because of the data that may have been included in the unauthorized access, many people who have been involved in any case in any Montana court may be affected,” Bowen Greenwood, Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court, told the Daily Montanan in an email..

According to the notice from Thomson Reuters, the breach occurred in March 2026 and ended in June. 

A company notice about C-Track said the unauthorized activity was discovered on June 30, and data had been accessed in March from courts in Kentucky, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Ohio, Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Court administrator Dave McAlpin was informed of the issue on July 23, and Swanson said the team has been working to resolve the problem since then. 

“Since learning of the data breach, the Montana court team has worked tirelessly to identify whether any Montanan has been harmed by it,” Swanson said in a statement. “We appreciate the rapid support of other state Supreme Courts and the National Center for State Courts. We will continue to work with the TR and C-Track teams to ensure our courts operate without fear of compromise of personal privacy.”

All data was stored entirely on the Thomson Reuters system, and the breach “was not the fault of Montana or any other state court system,” according to the press release. 

A website dedicated to the C-Track data breach indicates the company’s investigation showed that the court records affected could potentially contain individuals’ names and possibly one or more of the following: Social Security number, driver’s license number, medical information, date of birth, and health insurance information. Certain confidential, redacted or sealed information may have been impacted.

“Once we learned the extent of the incident, we coordinated with ThomsonReuters and the other impacted states to issue simultaneous public announcements of this large-scale event,” the press release said. 

In Montana, court administration staff received a copy of state data that had been accessed and is still reviewing the data with the Thomson Reuters security team to determine if private or confidential information was accessed. 

The Office of Court Administration said that most of the accessed data appears to be publicly available information, but some personally identifiable information including driver’s license numbers and dates of birth was also found in the accessed files. 

Montanans who are concerned their personal identifying information may have been included in the security breach should go to www.ctracknotification.com or call 1-833-918-5294 toll free Monday through Friday between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Central Time (excluding major U.S. holidays). If you have a speech or hearing impairment and use a TTY, please call 711. Be prepared to

provide engagement number B 17184 7.

Thomson Reuters will provide 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection to anyone affected.