By Sarah N. Lynch and Nate Raymond
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department is investigating a cyber breach involving the federal court records management system, the department’s top national security attorney told lawmakers on Thursday.
Matt Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, told the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said an ongoing investigation was underway “regarding the effort to compromise public judicial dockets.”
Olsen made those remarks in response to questions from Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the panel’s Democratic chairman, who said the committee had only in March learned of ‘startling breadth and scope” of the breach.
The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in January 2021 said it was adding new security procedures following an “apparent compromise of the confidentiality” its electronic filing system, which it said suffered from vulnerabilities.
“This is of course a significant concern for us given the nature of the information that is often held by the courts,” Olsen told lawmakers.
He said the Justice Department was “very concerned,” adding that it was “working very closely with the Judicial Conference and judges around the country to investigate and address this issue.”
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Nate Raymond)
