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US Court System Breached in Suspected Russian Cyberattack, NYT Reveals
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Investigators have found evidence suggesting that Russia is at least partly responsible for a major cyberattack on the US federal court system’s document-management network, according to The New York Times on August 12. The breach, which compromised highly sensitive records containing information that could expose confidential sources and individuals charged with national security crimes, is believed to be part of a yearslong infiltration effort.
It remains unclear which specific entity is responsible, or whether an arm of Russian intelligence was behind the intrusion. Officials have not ruled out the involvement of other countries. Some searches in the compromised system targeted midlevel criminal cases in New York City and other jurisdictions, including cases involving individuals with Russian and Eastern European surnames.
The revelation comes just days before US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, where discussions are expected to include Trump’s push to end the war in Ukraine, The New Yourk Times reported.
Court administrators recently warned Justice Department officials, clerks, and chief judges that “persistent and sophisticated cyber threat actors have recently compromised sealed records,” according to an internal memo reviewed by The New York Times. The memo urged officials to “quickly remove the most sensitive documents from the system” and emphasized, “This remains an URGENT MATTER that requires immediate action.”
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Initially, officials believed the attackers targeted criminal cases with overseas links in at least eight federal district courts. Last month, chief judges nationwide were quietly instructed to move such cases off the standard system and told not to discuss the matter with other judges.
In the Eastern District of New York, corrective measures are already underway. On Friday, Chief Judge Margo K. Brodie ordered that sealed documents may no longer be uploaded to PACER , the public court database. Instead, they will be stored on a separate secure drive.
According to The New York Times, federal authorities are now racing to assess the scale of the breach, identify vulnerabilities, and implement stronger safeguards. Last week, the US court system publicly announced new security measures for the Case Management/Electronic Case Files network and PACER, though it did not confirm the attack’s origin or specify which files were compromised.
The breach also affected federal courts in South Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, and Arkansas, according to an official familiar with the investigation.
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“Sensitive documents can be targets of interest to a range of threat actors,” court officials wrote in last week’s notice, adding that new restrictions are being implemented to control and monitor access.
In response to the earlier attack in January 2021, prosecutors in some districts—especially the Southern District of New York—began filing highly sensitive materials on paper or delivering them by hand. However, former Justice Department officials said these measures could not fully eliminate the risks given the system’s scale and complexity.
By spring last year, the courts had introduced additional safeguards: judges were barred from accessing internal systems while abroad and, in some cases, were issued burner phones and new email addresses. In May, the Administrative Office of the US Courts began requiring multifactor authentication for system access.
Earlier, it was reported that Ukraine faces around 100,000 cyberattacks every month, according to Mykhailo Fedorov, Vice Prime Minister for Innovation and Minister of Digital Transformation.
