Security News > 2021 > January > Sealed U.S. Court Records Exposed in SolarWinds Breach

The ongoing breach affecting thousands of organizations that relied on backdoored products by network software firm SolarWinds may have jeopardized the privacy of countless sealed court documents on file with the U.S. federal court system, according to a memo released Wednesday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

"The AO is working with the Department of Homeland Security on a security audit relating to vulnerabilities in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system that greatly risk compromising highly sensitive non-public documents stored on CM/ECF, particularly sealed filings," the agency said in a statement published Jan. 6.

A source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that the federal court document system was "Hit hard," by the SolarWinds attackers, which multiple U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have attributed as "Likely Russian in origin."

The AO's court document system powers a publicly searchable database called PACER, and the vast majority of the files in PACER are not restricted and are available to anyone willing to pay for the records.

Nicholas Weaver, a lecturer at the computer science department at University of California, Berkeley, said the court document system doesn't hold documents that are classified for national security reasons.

These sealed documents will not be uploaded to CM/ECF. "This new practice will not change current policies regarding public access to court records, since sealed records are confidential and currently are not available to the public," the AO said.

News URL

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/01/sealed-u-s-court-records-exposed-in-solarwinds-breach/