US Government works to safeguard PACER after suspected Russian involvement in hack

t was announced over the summer that the government document filesystem PACER, which allows authorized users access to case information, was breached by threat actors who had access to informant identities, sealed case documents, and other confidential legal and criminal information, according to Politico.  

The U.S. Courts announced in August that it will be significantly strengthening its cybersecurity posture, specifically surrounding how its system protects Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF). Around the same time, it was revealed by investigators that Russia “is at least partly responsible,” per the New York Times, for the hack on the federal court file system, known as PACER.  

PACER has been in use since 1988 through connected government terminals and, since 2001, usable over the Internet. Due to its age, PACER has faced criticism from those who call on the government to replace it with a modern system.  

In speaking to representatives in Congress, Seventh Circuit Judge and Chair of the Judicial Conference Committee on Information Technology Michael Y Scudder, Jr, said that “The branch’s top IT priority is replacing the Judiciary’s case management/electronic case filing (CM/ECF) system and its portal, the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) System." 

According to a statement posted on the US Courts website, “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.” 

It has been suspected since at least 2021 that the filesystem was compromised. Since then, the Justice Department has warned that the breach was an “urgent matter”, according to the NY Times.