Cartels may be able to target witnesses after major court hack

Officials fear that Latin American drug cartels are among those who obtained sensitive court data due to a sweeping breach of the federal judiciary’s case filing system, raising concerns that the groups will now be able to target cooperating witnesses involved in criminal trials against them.

The worry, according to three judicial officials and investigators with knowledge of the hack, is that cartels could weaponize the stolen data to identify witnesses in cases the federal government has opened against them, or to gain knowledge of impending or ongoing criminal investigations, such as sealed wiretap orders and arrest and search warrants.

At least a dozen district courts across several U.S. states are believed to have been directly impacted by the ongoing compromise of the digital case filing system, known as CM/ECF, according to the first two people. The incident is believed to be one of the most serious hacks into the federal court filing system in years.

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