The New York Times has learned that aggressor country Russia is involved in a large-scale cyberattack on the US judicial system. According to insiders, the Russian government is "at least partially responsible" for the hack of the PACER system, a database that stores court case files.
Points of attention
- This cyberattack, confirmed by American authorities, raises questions about its impact on US-Russian relations, especially with the upcoming Trump-Putin talks.
- This incident is not isolated, as Russian cybercriminals have a history of targeting American judicial structures, such as the SolarWinds hack.
Russia caught red-handed again
According to anonymous sources, cybercriminals were looking for "medium-scale criminal cases" in New York and several other regions of the United States.
They also focused on documents that featured people with Russian and Eastern European surnames.
There is a high probability that hackers will gain access to the identities of confidential informants who assist law enforcement.
The stolen materials likely include sealed criminal files, indictments, arrest warrants, and other documents that have not yet been released or were not intended for public access at all.
The American authorities officially confirmed that such a cyberattack really happened.
The media has at its disposal an internal letter to the US Department of Justice, which states: "resilient and highly skilled cybercriminals" have hacked protected records.
It is still difficult to understand how this high-profile scandal will affect the results of the meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
What is important to understand is that this is not the first time that Russian cybercriminals have attacked American judicial structures.
For example, 5 years ago they hacked SolarWinds software, which was used by government agencies and large US companies.
