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2d ago

Hackers Breach Federal Court Case Filing Systems

A joint investigation aims to pinpoint compromised records to safeguard informants.

The Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building houses the offices of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, the Federal Judicial Center, the United States Sentencing Commission, and the Office of the Clerk of the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons / D Ramey Logan)
Computers are seen inside a federal courtroom in New York on June 6.
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Overview

  • Officials from the Administrative Office, the FBI and the Justice Department are probing the full scope of the breach on CM/ECF and PACER.
  • Investigators have confirmed that around a dozen court dockets in one district were tampered with and fear confidential informant data may have been exposed.
  • Although nation-state–affiliated actors are widely suspected, sources say criminal organizations could also be involved and no definitive attribution has been made.
  • Chief judges of the 8th Circuit and Justice Brett Kavanaugh received briefings on the incident at an early August judicial conference in Kansas City.
  • The breach has heightened calls for a phased overhaul of the judiciary’s outdated case management platforms following proposals by IT committee chair Michael Scudder.