Evidence Found Linking Russian Hackers to Cyberattack on US Courts
American investigators have found evidence that Russia is at least partly responsible for hacking into the federal court document storage system in the United States.
The Gaze reports on it, referring to The New York Times.
According to the publication's sources, the court documents contain, in particular, ‘extremely sensitive material’ that may include information about sources and individuals accused of crimes and related to US national security.
The publication writes that it is currently unknown who is responsible for the hack — whether it was a Russian intelligence unit or whether other countries were involved. Some sources described the attack as a long-standing attempt to infiltrate the system.
According to the NYT, the hackers were interested in criminal cases in New York and some other cities, with several cases involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames.
Court administrators recently informed the US Department of Justice, court clerks and chief judges of federal courts that ‘persistent and highly skilled cyber attackers recently gained access to classified materials.’ They called for the most sensitive documents to be removed from the system as soon as possible.
Initially, it was believed that documents related to criminal activity abroad were at risk in at least eight district courts. Last month, chief judges of federal courts across the country were privately warned of the need to remove such cases from the main document management system. They were also instructed not to discuss this with other judges in their districts.
Federal officials are trying to determine the extent of the breach and eliminate vulnerabilities in a sprawling computer network that has long been considered a potential target for foreign adversaries. Last week, the court system administration announced that it was taking additional measures to protect the network, including the electronic case management system and the PACER database.
As The Gaze reported earlier, the British Ministry of Defence repelled a cyberattack by hackers linked to Russia who posed as journalists.