US court system suffered 'incredibly significant attack' – sealed files at risk
- Reference: 1659068948
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/07/29/us_judiciary_attack/
- Source link:
That quote comes from congressional representative Jerrold Lewis Nadler, who uttered them on Thursday in his introductory remarks to a House Committee on the Judiciary hearing conducting oversight of the Department of Justice National Security Division (NSD).
Nadler segued into the mention of the breach after mentioning the NSD's efforts to defend America against external actors that seek to attack its system of government. He commenced his remarks on the attack at the 4:40 mark in the video below:
[1]
[2]Youtube Video
[3]
[4]
The rep's remarks appear to refer to the January 2021 [5]disclosure by James C. Duff, who at the time served as secretary of the Judicial Conference of the United States, of "an apparent compromise" of confidentiality in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files system (CM/ECF).
That incident may have exploited vulnerabilities in CM/ECF and "greatly risk compromising highly sensitive non-public documents stored on CM/ECF, particularly sealed filings."
[6]
Such documents are filed by the US government in cases that touch on national security, and therefore represent valuable intelligence.
The star witness at the hearing, assistant attorney general for National Security Matthew Olsen, said the Department of Justice continues to investigate the matter, adding the attack has not impacted his unit's work.
But Olsen was unable – or unwilling – to describe the incident in detail.
[7]DoJ approves Google's acquisition of Mandiant
[8]DoJ, FBI recover $500,000 in ransomware payments to Maui gang
[9]Oracle plans US database for electronic health records
However, a [10]report in Politico quoted an unnamed aide as saying "the sweeping impact it may have had on the operation of the Department of Justice is staggering."
For now, the extent of that impact, and its cause, are not known.
[11]
The nature of the vulnerability and the methods used to exploit it are also unknown, but Nadler suggested it is not related to the SolarWinds attack that the Judiciary has already acknowledged.
Olsen said he would update the Committee with further information once that's possible. Representatives in the hearing indicated they await those details with considerable interest. ®
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[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YuOv2n-755owHMr2Wu8m-QAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://youtu.be/RZqQTTkFQYQ?t=280
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YuOv2n-755owHMr2Wu8m-QAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YuOv2n-755owHMr2Wu8m-QAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2021/01/06/judiciary-addresses-cybersecurity-breach-extra-safeguards-protect-sensitive-court
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YuOv2n-755owHMr2Wu8m-QAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/25/security_in_brief/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/20/doj-maui-ransomware-payments/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/10/oracle_us_health_database/
[10] https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/28/justice-department-data-breach-federal-court-system-00048485
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YuOv2n-755owHMr2Wu8m-QAAAI8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Popcorn
From what I have seen of the US legal system, applying the word 'justice' to it appears to be mainly marketing :(.
SNAFU
If Uncle Sam is dealing with the escape of information and knowledge on systemic attack side vulnerabilities and catastrophic defence weaknesses rather than secretive type energetic powers they might be concealing, removing them is the only guaranteed secure solution ensuring no future deeper expanding problems ‽ .
If they can’t or don’t do that, is much more of the same sort of pain and loss of past gain naturally bound to increase with a greater number of practically unknown actors doing their very best to take full advantage of the leads and vulnerabilities and weaknesses discovered and found being widely shared amongst allies and enemies alike engaged in such novel sectors of deep disruptive interest and/or creative endeavour granted/securing for themselves unbridled remote unauthorised access to an indefensible store of extremely nasty unsupportable secrets.
Let's focus on the perp..
If a Congressman still young enough to almost-but-not-quite read the word 'ostensibly' without hesitating is willing to call this an 'incredibly sophisticated' attack we can probably rule out all those suspects below the age of, say, 9 years old?
Edit: I've not been able to uncover evidence of rep. Nadler in the same room as a computer however he is capable of using telephones someone else is holding, so he knows tech: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/rep-jerrold-nadler-d-n-y-does-a-phone-interview-in-statuary-news-photo/74896896
The sweeping effect on operations is staggering
Is it staggering enough to call [1]IBM ?
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/29/ibm_data_inflation/
Anything which confounds officialdom
is always a "highly sophisticated" operation. Because they are hardly going to admit they were fooled by bazza98@gmail.com are they ?
In the UK, the CPS states that using a timer switch to control lights growing cannabis is a "sophisticated industrial process". You'd think the jury would wonder at that, and seeing Beavis and Butthead in the dock ....
Re: Anything which confounds officialdom
I had nothing to do with it.
Cheers
Bazza
"highly sophisticated" attack
So, did the perps exploit single-directory ftp configuration (incoming dir == outgoing dir) and open mainframe IND$ service (unauthenticated job submission)?
Popcorn
I look forward to seeing what kind of secret justice has been going on.