‘Unprecedented’ cyber hack by ‘enemy nation state’ on US sparks fears of confidential information being exposed

A major hack is feared to have exposed some of the Department of Justice’s most high-profile sources.

The unidentified hackers breached the electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary – and may have accessed confidential information from federal district courts around the country, Politico reports, citing two people with knowledge of the attack.

Among the information that may have been compromised are the identities of confidential informants in criminal cases, though the identities of those who were thought to face exceptional risk for cooperating with the DOJ are held on separate systems than the ones hacked.

Other information the hackers may have acquired are sealed indictments detailing confidential information about alleged crimes and arrests and search warrants that criminals may use to evade capture.

The Administrative Office of the US Courts, which manages the federal court filing system, has now been left scrambling with the Department of Justice and district courts around the US to determine how much of a threat the hack poses.

But an unidentified source who spent more than two decades on the federal judiciary told Politico: ‘It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a hack at this level.’

It is now suspected that the attack was conducted by nation-state affiliated actors, though criminal organizations may have also been involved.

A major hack is feared to have exposed some of the Department of Justice’s (pictured) most high-profile sources

The attack targeted the judiciary’s federal core case management system – which includes the Case Management/Electronic Case Files that lawyers use to upload and manage case documents as well as PACER, a system that gives the public limited access to the data

Officials were first made aware of the breach around the July 4 holiday, and chief judges of the federal courts in the 8th Circuit – which includes Arkansas, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota – were alerted about the hack last week, according to Politico.

It affected the judiciary’s federal core case management system – which includes the Case Management/Electronic Case Files that lawyers use to upload and manage case documents as well as PACER, a system that gives the public limited access to the data.

Roughly a dozen court dockets were also tampered with in one court district during the hack, an unidentified source said.

The incident demonstrates the susceptibility of the outdated court filing system to hackers.

PACER had even been hacked at least once before – back in July 2022 – in a breach that then-House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler described as ‘startling in breadth and scope.’

Michael Scudder, who chairs the Committee on Information Technology for the federal courts and national policymaking body, warned the House Judiciary in June of this year that more such attacks may be coming.

He said that because the Judiciary holds such sensitive information, it faces ‘unrelenting security threats of extraordinary gravity.’

‘Experience has shown that the Judiciary is a high-value target for malicious actors and cyber criminals seeking to misappropriate confidential information and disrupt the judicial process in the United States,’ he testified.

‘These attacks pose risks to our entire justice system.’

Michael Scudder, who chairs the Committee on Information Technology for the federal courts and national policymaking body, warned of the susceptibility of the outdated system to hackers in June

In fiscal year 2024, he noted, 200 million harmful cyber ‘events’ were prevented from penetrating court local area networks in fiscal year 2024, according to The Record.

But, Scudder said, the Case Management/Electronic Case Files and PACER systems pose an even greater risk as they are ‘outdated [and] unsustainable due to cyber risks and require replacement,’ which he said is a ‘top priority’ for the Department of Justice.

Still, Scudder said, a new, more modernized system would have to be ‘developed and rolled out on an incremental basis.’