US federal court filing system breach reportedly linked to Russia

Russia-linked threat actors were reported to have been behind the recent compromise of the U.S. Judiciary's CM/ECF case management system, which includes the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system, or PACER, reports Cybernews.

Advanced and persistent attackers have long been targeting CM/ECF system to obtain sensitive court data, including information on individuals with national security crime charges, as well as their sources, said court officials to The New York Times. Officials close to the investigation noted that initial attacks involved the targeting of criminal case files with overseas connections across eight or more district courts. However, additional details on the exact date of the file management system's breach and the identity of its attackers are still being looked into. Such a development comes after the federal judiciary moved to strengthen the security defenses of its systems in a bid to ensure the protection of sensitive court data.