U.S. federal court system under attack by foreign actors

[summer_in_TX]

Congress Wants Answers on a ‘Significant’ Cyberattack on Courts
July 28, 2022 | Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-28/us-investigating-significant-breach-of-american-court-system

[Snip]

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said on Thursday that his committee learned in March of “the startling breadth and scope of the courts’ documents management system security failure.” He added the hack had a “disturbing impact” on both pending civil and criminal litigation and national security.

In January 2021, the Administrative Office of the US Courts said it was investigating “an apparent compromise” in its electronic case filing system, which enables attorneys to file case documents such as pleadings, motions and petitions with courts online. The office said the breach occurred as a result of vulnerabilities in its electronic case filing system that risked compromising sensitive sealed filings.

[Snip]

Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for the National Security Division at the Department of Justice, cited hacking threats from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea in response to Nadler’s concerns during a Thursday committee hearing, saying the challenge when it comes to nation-state cyber activity is “significant.” He referred to an ongoing investigation into the matter but gave no details. Nadler didn’t name the three hostile foreign actors or say how he learned of their alleged role.

Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said the federal judiciary has yet to publicly explain what happened and has refused multiple requests to provide unclassified briefings to Congress. On Thursday, he accused the federal judiciary of concealing what happened and demanded more information.

--------------------

I was startled to run across a couple of articles on a very significant data breach and cyberattack on the federal court system that broke a couple of weeks ago, although the attacks occurred more than 18 months ago. Yet I'd never heard of it. Couldn't find anything about it when I searched, but my searches on various titles from other publications were blocked. Looks like the federal judiciary isn't being forthcoming about what happened. But lots of sealed information may have been part of the information acquired by three foreign actors referred to by Chairman Jerry Nadler of the House Judiciary Committee.

A second article has more: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/28/justice-department-data-breach-federal-court-system-00048485

[elleng]

1. OH FFS!!!

Shouldn't be surprised, of course, the russkies being who they are.

'On Thursday, (Sen Wyden) accused the federal judiciary of concealing what happened and demanded more information.'

[crickets]

2. Wow. K&R for visibility.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. Maybe it's time to quit spending tax dollars licensing the world's worst software.

[Captain Zero]

4. Trying to get at the sealed affidavits??

So they can threaten and rub out witnesses?

Have I read too many John Grisham novels?

[summer_in_TX]

5. There's all kinds of mischief those who can get access to sealed documents

can get up to.

Threatening and rubbing out witnesses would be one.
Blackmail.
Accessing financial info
Exploiting top-secret information that was sealed