A U.S. senator requested that the Supreme Court chief justice investigate the cybersecurity posture of national court systems and commission a National Academy of Sciences review of recent and 2020 intrusions. The breach potentially exposed confidential informant identities across several federal district courts and is believed to have involved Russian hackers. The federal judiciary lacks mandatory cybersecurity requirements, an inspector general, and has been accused of covering up negligence and resisting oversight. Court IT infrastructure is often outdated and under-resourced, making systems attractive to nation-state actors, cartels, and cybercriminals and creating risks of data exploitation, extortion, and disrupted proceedings.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts Monday asking him to launch an investigation into the cybersecurity posture of the nation's court systems after a hack of its cornerstone electronic legal case management system was reported earlier this month. The breach, which was first reported by Politico, potentially revealed the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases in several federal district courts.
Russian hackers are believed to have been at least partly involved in the intrusion, echoing a similar 2020 hack of court systems. "The federal judiciary's current approach to information technology is a severe threat to our national security," Wyden wrote. "Yet, you continue to refuse to require the federal courts to meet mandatory cybersecurity requirements and allow them to routinely ignore basic cybersecurity best practices."
Court systems are appealing targets for nation-state hackers and cybercriminals because they house sensitive legal records, classified filings and personal data that can be exploited for intelligence or extortion. Latin American cartels may have accessed sensitive legal data as a result of the hack, Politico also reported. Disrupting court operations could potentially delay proceedings or provide legal or strategic advantages to foreign adversaries.
Collection
[
|
...
]