Wyden Calls For Independent Review of Federal Judicial Cybersecurity Following Massive Hack of Secret Court Files
Wyden’s Letter Responds to Second Major Court Hack in Five Years; Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts Has Covered Up Causes of Hacks, Refused to Require Extremely Basic Cybersecurity Protections For Years After Disastrous Hack
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., called on Chief Justice John Roberts to commission a comprehensive review of the federal court system’s cybersecurity practices, following the second major hack of the courts’ electronic case management system in the past five years.
This system was hacked by multiple foreign actors in 2020, and yet federal courts refused to make details about the incident public, or to require even basic cybersecurity protections such as multifactor authentication. The courts refused to respond to questions Wyden sent in 2022, seeking information about that breach.
“These serious problems in the judiciary’s approach to cybersecurity have been able to fester for decades because the judiciary covers up its own negligence, has no inspector general and repeatedly stonewalls congressional oversight. This status quo cannot continue,” Wyden wrote to Roberts, who leads the federal court system as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Only in June 2025, after the second major hack of the case management system, did the federal courts announce they would begin requiring multifactor authentication. This basic cybersecurity measure has been required by executive branch agencies since 2015.
Negligent court cybersecurity can be highly damaging to Americans’ national security, Wyden wrote. Sealed court filings located in the case management system can include extremely sensitive information about national security sources and methods, the names of key federal witnesses, or details of ongoing investigations. In the hands of foreign adversaries or criminal cartels, such information could be highly damaging to Americans’ security. The New York Times reported that “documents related to criminal activity with overseas ties,” were believed to be targeted in the most recent yack.
Wyden has sought for years to improve the sad state of federal courts’ technology practices. He introduced the Open Courts Act in 2020 to upgrade the federal courts’ outdated IT systems, impose minimum cybersecurity standards and improve accessibility of court filings.
Read the full letter here.
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