Threat Management, Security Staff Acquisition & Development

Cyberattack risk against federal judiciary elevated

Reuters reports that the federal judiciary has been increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks due to old computer systems. The revelation was part of testimonies by U.S. Circuit Judge Amy St. Eve and U.S. District Judge Roslynn Mauskopf before the U.S. House of Representatives' Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government as the judiciary sought for $403 million in supplemental spending for cybersecurity amid the significant increase of targeted cyberattacks. "I cannot overstate the gravity of the broad impacts across our society of cyber attacks on the judicial branch. These attacks pose risks to our entire justice system and more broadly are an attack on our democracy itself," said Mauskopf, the director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Mauskopf emphasized the need to protect sensitive law enforcement and national security data. "Our systems house draft opinions. That's another category of very sensitive, pre-decisional information that we house within our systems, which is yet another reason why we need to take steps to modernize our systems," Mauskopf added.

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