Overview

• In a letter this week, Sen. Ron Wyden asked Chief Justice John Roberts to commission an outside, public review of the judiciary’s cyber defenses, recommending the National Academy of Sciences to lead it.
• Wyden accused the courts of negligence, weak adoption of phishing‑resistant multifactor authentication, secrecy about past incidents, and stonewalling congressional oversight.
• Reporting this month says hackers accessed sealed federal court materials starting at least in early July by exploiting long‑known vulnerabilities in CM/ECF and PACER.
• The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts said on Aug. 7 it is acting to bolster security after recent sophisticated, persistent attacks on its case management system.
• News outlets, citing people familiar with the probe, report Russian‑linked actors were at least partly responsible, echoing a similar compromise disclosed in 2020.