US federal courts were reportedly hit by another data breach

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The document system of the federal courts was hit by a startling breadth and scope in early 2020 according to testimony from the House Judiciary Committee chair. The DOJ told the judiciary about the problem in March and the investigation is still going on, according to reports. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) expressed concern that the DOJ had been hiding information about the incident.

The security officials for the DOJ didn't specify which countries could be involved in the "system security failure."

In early 2021, the federal judiciary system announced that it would be going low-tech for its most sensitive documents and that they would have to be delivered by hand. The SolarWinds attack gave hackers access to the systems of dozens of businesses and government agencies. The SolarWinds attack is thought to have started in early 2020, but the breach disclosed by Nadler is a different incident.

Information about how the attackers got into the judiciary's systems isn't publicly available. It's not clear when the attack was discovered. The National Security Division of the Justice Department did not respond to the request for comment.