Cybersecurity Measures Strengthened in Light of Attacks on Judiciary’s Case Management System

The federal Judiciary is taking additional steps to strengthen protections for sensitive case documents in response to recent escalated cyberattacks of a sophisticated and persistent nature on its case management system. The Judiciary is also further enhancing security of the system and to block future attacks, and it is prioritizing working with courts to mitigate the impact on litigants.

The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has continued to collaborate with Congress as well as the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and other partners in the executive branch to mitigate the risks and impacts of these cyberattacks.

The vast majority of documents filed with the Judiciary’s electronic case management system are not confidential and indeed are readily available to the public, which is fundamental to an open and transparent judicial system. However, some filings contain confidential or proprietary information that are sealed from public view.

These sensitive documents can be targets of interest to a range of threat actors. To better protect them, courts have been implementing more rigorous procedures to restrict access to sensitive documents under carefully controlled and monitored circumstances.

Enhancing the security of its systems is a top priority for the Judiciary. Over the past few years, the Judiciary has added significant cybersecurity protections and safeguards to the case management system. The Chairman of the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Information Technology, Court of Appeals Judge Michael Y. Scudder, briefed the Conference and the media in September 2024 on potential threats to Judiciary IT systems and steps taken by the Judiciary to address them. Subsequently, in June of this year Judge Scudder testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee and underscored the Judiciary’s ongoing commitment to investing in and modernizing its IT systems in order to confront the constant and increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats the branch faces.

As other federal government and private entities likewise continue to experience, cyber risks continue to evolve as threat actors grow more sophisticated and change and adapt their tactics, and safeguarding legacy systems poses a particularly difficult challenge. In tackling cybersecurity threats, the Judiciary embraces its security obligations and remains committed to leveraging all available resources to include collaboration with law enforcement, national security and cybersecurity organizations, and other information sharing entities.