The Justice Department is investigating a massive data intrusion of the federal courts' records management system.
During a committee hearing on oversight of the DOJ's National Security Division, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) confirmed to lawmakers that three foreign actors managed to successfully attack the U.S. courts filing system in early 2020.
In the first public acknowledgment of the breach, Rep. Nadler called the event a “system security failure.”
The New York lawmaker revealed that the committee initially learned of the massive breach in March.
During the hearing, Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Department Matthew Olsen also testified the department is committed to “working very closely with the judicial conference and judges around the country to address this issue.”
So far it remains unclear exactly how much damage was done to the Justice Department's operational system. Committee member Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) pressed Olsen for more information regarding the data breach.
“I would expect your preparation and for us to be able to get that information as quickly as possible in a setting that would be appropriate, but this is a dangerous set of circumstances that has now been publicly announced, and we need to know how many…were dismissed,” Jackson Lee said.
Olsen testified that he was not aware of any specific cases impacted by the breach that had been pursued by the National Security Department. Olsen also testified that the NSD is not yet aware of who committed the attack, but his division is typically focused on threats of cyberattacks coming from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Olsen also testified that the 2020 breach is not related to the SolarWinds hack.
On Thursday, Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden sent a letter to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts expressing his concern over the records breach.
“The federal judiciary has yet to publicly explain what happened and has refused multiple requests to provide unclassified briefings to Congress,” Wyden wrote in the letter.
Asked for further details on the breach, Wyden said that he “can't get into that” for fear of “running afoul of the classification system.”
Due to the imminent threat of cyberattacks on an outdated electronic system, the federal judiciary has been working to update its electronic case management operations, filing system, and the associated web portal, known as PACER, which is used to access federal records.
Do your job DOJ vs J6 probes etc
Focus DOJ
Your IN ON this
Our government is too busy worrying about gays, transgender and true Americans standing up for freedom.Military too busy playing woke culture on the troops and Joe Biden worrying about his ice cream and pudding.. Isn’t wonderful how are government doesn’t give a rat ass about the safety of America.
Hopefully this breach will be remedied as part of the 1.9 billion infrastructure bill that the tax payer will be paying!
Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. It seems like our government manages to hire people that aren’t as smart, or technical, as the hackers seem to be. This happens much too often in this country, not only the government data, but many of our top businesses. Will we ever learn?
Is Nadler just now concerned able something in early 2020. That is over 2 years. How much has been breached? Maybe J6 committee should be investigating something that is threatening instead of a hate our President witch hunt. What a sick Congress we have. Their priorities are all in their emotions and hate and not to get security for our country. Appears the ones that do a good job have their head screwed on and those that are destroying our country by all their hate acts are on a continue path of destruction.