The US federal judiciary has announced stronger cybersecurity protections for sensitive court documents following “recent escalated cyber-attacks” on its case management system.
The statement follows reports that the federal case filing system was breached by threat actors, exposing sensitive court documents in multiple US states.
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOUSC) said the recent attacks are of a sophisticated and persistent nature. It noted that the sensitive nature of some documents held on this system are targets of interest to a range of threat actors.
“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,” the AOUSC wrote in a release dated August 7.
The judiciary is working with courts to mitigate the impact of breached documents on affected litigants.
Additionally, courts across the country have been implementing more rigorous procedures to restrict access to sensitive documents under carefully controlled and monitored circumstances, the AOUSC added.
Confidential Court Documents Reportedly Exposed by Hack
The AOUSC announcement is likely in response to a report by Politico on August 6 that the electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary had been breached in a major cyber intrusion.
According to two people with knowledge of the incident, the attack is feared to have compromised the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases at multiple federal district courts.
The anonymous sources told Politico that nation-state actors are widely suspected of involvement in the hack.
The incident is believed to have affected the judiciary’s federal core case management system, including a component used by legal professionals to upload and manage case files.
Other sensitive information held in court documents that are not publicly available include people whose identities are protected by court orders or legislation, such as minors.
Court System a Prime Target for Attackers
Court documents are a major target for a range of threat actors, including nation-state groups for espionage purposes, malicious actors attempting to disrupt or influence individual cases, and financially motivated cybercriminals using sensitive court data to extort individuals and organizations.
In 2022, a US Congress member revealed that a public document management system used by US courts had been compromised by a cyber-attack in 2020.
Following the incident, the AOUSC promised that sensitive court documents would now be stored in a “secure stand-alone computer system” and not uploaded to the public document management system.
In September 2024, Chairman of the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Information Technology and Court of Appeals Judge Michael Y. Scudder warned of rising threats to judiciary IT systems, including by foreign adversaries for the purpose of sowing distrust in the US government.
In June 2025, the International Criminal Court (ICC) reported it had been hit by a “sophisticated and targeted” cybersecurity incident.
The ICC had previously experienced an attack on its IT systems in September 2023, which was later confirmed to be espionage related.
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