Hackers breached US federal court system: witnesses, warrants, and classified materials at risk
Kyiv • UNN
The US federal judiciary's document management system suffered a large-scale hacker attack. The attackers gained access to top-secret data, including information about witnesses and arrest warrants.
The US federal judiciary's document management system has fallen victim to a large-scale hacker attack. The attackers managed to gain access to top-secret data, including information about witnesses, sealed indictments, and arrest warrants.
The scale of the incident is still being determined. This is reported by UNN, citing information from POLITICO.
Details
The US federal electronic court system was hacked during a large-scale cyberattack that likely compromised the personal data of witnesses and law enforcement personnel in several states. This was reported by two informed sources who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic.
Hackers gained access to key components – CM/ECF (Case Management/Electronic Case Files) and PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). Both systems are considered the "backbone" of the American judiciary.
The breach could have given attackers access to documents such as:
- sealed indictments;
- data of witnesses cooperating with authorities;
- search and arrest warrants;
- internal court records.
It is suspected that the attack may have been carried out by state structures of hostile countries or organized criminal groups. The exact source of the threat has not yet been established.
The alarm was raised in early July, when the Administrative Office of the US Courts first identified the nature of the incident. But even now, more than a month later, the situation remains opaque.
The Department of Justice, the FBI, and individual courts across the country continue to assess the extent of the damage. The incident has already been discussed behind closed doors at the 8th Federal Circuit Judicial Conference in Kansas City, attended by high-ranking officials, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Judicial Administration Director Robert Conrad. At the same time, official comments from the government are practically absent.
Some sources claim that about ten court documents were forged in one of the districts, although there is no confirmation of these actions yet. It is likely that the most vulnerable were not the most protected arrays – individuals under special protection are believed to be stored in separate closed systems of the Department of Justice.
"I've never seen an attack of this magnitude before,"
The problem is systemic: back in June, the chairman of the federal judiciary's IT committee, Michael Scudder, admitted that CM/ECF and PACER are outdated, vulnerable to cyber threats, and require immediate updating. He stated that modernizing the judicial infrastructure is a top priority, but due to its complexity, its implementation will be phased.
This is not the first case: in 2022, the US Congress also investigated a hack of judicial systems, which, according to then-committee chairman Jerrold Nadler, was carried out by three foreign hack groups back in 2020.
The question of whether these attacks are related remains open.