As millions of voters prepare for the upcoming presidential election in November, key members of the U.S. federal judiciary were warned Tuesday to guard against the risks of cyber breaches by foreign actors who could attempt to interfere in election-related litigation and spread misinformation.
U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Scudder, who chairs a committee on information technology for federal courts, warned of a potential election-year hacking risk during a meeting of the Judicial Conference of the United States, the judiciary's top policymaking body, in Washington, DC.
“Now is a time when everyone in the judiciary needs to remain vigilant and be more intelligent and vigilant in all aspects of our use and monitoring of our IT systems,” Scudder told reporters while speaking at a press conference following the meeting.
He cited public reports from the U.S. intelligence community that “foreign adversaries view this election season as an opportunity to spread misinformation and sow doubt about the functioning and stability of our national government.”
Last month, US intelligence agencies accused Iran of launching cyber operations against the campaigns of both US presidential candidates, including a hacking operation targeting the campaign of former Republican President Donald Trump.
Scudder, who serves on the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, said that while he was not aware of any current cyber threats involving the courts, “we must presume that the judiciary faces this same risk.”
“The intelligence community's reports have emphasized the risk to the nation as a whole,” he said, adding, “And it really doesn't take much imagination, in our view, to see election-related litigation potentially coming back to court in this next cycle.”
In 2020, three “hostile foreign actors” breached the federal judiciary's document filing system, Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who chaired the House Judiciary Committee at the time, said during a hearing in 2022.
The cyberattack prompted the judiciary to change the way it handles confidential documents in lower courts.
