Investigators have Uncovered Evidence that Russia is at least in {art, Responsible for a recent Hack of the Computer System that Manages Federal Court Documents, including Highly Sensitive Records that might contain Information that could reveal Sources and People Charged with National Security Crimes.
It is Not clear what Entity is Responsible, whether an Arm of Russian Intelligence might be behind the Intrusion or if other Countries were also involved, which some of the People familiar with the Matter described as a Yearslong effort to Infiltrate the System. Some of the Searches included Midlevel Criminal Cases in the New York City area, and several other Jurisdictions, with some Cases involving People with Russian and Eastern European Surnames. The Disclosure comes as Trump (R) is expected to Meet with His Russian Counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, where Trump is planning to Discuss His Push to End the War in Ukraine.
Administrators with the Court System. recently Informed Justice Department (DOJ) Officials, Clerks, and Chief Judges in Federal Courts, that “persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records,” according to an Internal Department Memo. The Administrators also Advised those Officials to Quickly Remove the most Sensitive Documents from the System. “This remains an URGENT MATTER that requires immediate action,” Officials wrote, referring to Guidance that the Justice Department had Issued in early 2021, after the System was First Infiltrated.
In recent weeks, Judges of the Eastern District of New York, have been taking Corrective Measures. On Friday, the Chief Judge of the Ddistrict, Margo K. Brodie, issued an Order Prohibiting the Uploading of Sealed Documents to PACER, the Searchable Public Database for Documents and Court dockets. Ordinarily, sealed documents would be uploaded to the database, but behind a wall, in theory preventing people without the proper Authority from seeing them. Now those Sensitive Documents will be Uploaded to a Separate System Drive, outside PACER.
Federal Officials are Scrambling to determine the Patterns of the Breach, Assess the Damage and Address Flaws in a Sprawling, Heavily used Computer System, long known to have Serious Vulnerabilities that could be Exploited by Foreign Adversaries. Last week, Administrators with the U.S. Court system Publicly announced they were taking Additional Steps to Protect the Network, which includes the Case Management/Electronic Case Files system, used to Upload Documents and PACER.
They did not address the origin of the attack, or what files had been compromised. The breach also included federal courts in South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Arkansas, said an official who requested anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation.
“Sensitive documents can be targets of interest to a range of threat actors,” the authors of last week’s notice wrote. “To better protect them, courts have been implementing more rigorous procedures to restrict access to sensitive documents under carefully controlled and monitored circumstances.”
The system had been under Attack since early July by an Unnamed Foreign Actor. Concerns about the Hacking of the Courts’ Electronic Filing SPstem predate this Summer. The Courts announced in January 2021, that there had been a Cyberattack but did Not name Russia. Former federal Law Enforcement Officials said Russia was behind that Hacking. It was Not Clear if other Countries also exploited Vulnerabilities in the system, but the former Officials described the Breach as Extremely Serious.
In 2022, Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-Ny, 17th District), claimed He had obtained Information that the Court System’s Computer Network had been Breached by Three unnamed Foreign Entities, dating to early 2020.
Matthew Olsen, then the Director of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, later Testified that He was Working with Court Officials to address Cybersecurity Issues in the Courts, but Downplayed the Affect on Cases His Unit was Investigating.
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