Federal courts step up security following major hack of electronic filing system

The Administrative Office of the U.S. courts said Thursday it was adopting additional security measures to protect its electronic case filing system in response to recent cyberattacks that may have exposed sensitive information.

POLITICO first reported Wednesday that the electronic case filing system used by the federal courts were compromised in a widespread hacking effort across several U.S. states. The incident affected the judiciary’s federal core case management system, which includes the Case Management/Electronic Case Files, or CM/ECF, which legal professionals use to upload and manage case documents; and PACER, a system that provides some public access to the same data.

In a release posted Thursday, the federal judiciary said it 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.”

Read more at Politico