President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he could potentially bring up the recent hack of U.S. federal court databases with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in Alaska later this week.
Investigators believe that hackers, including Russian actors, breached the court’s electronic filing system, potentially exposing sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states. The major hack was first reported by POLITICO last week.
“I guess I could, are you surprised?” Trump said during a press conference Wednesday in response to a question from a reporter on whether he would bring up the hacking activity with Putin during their planned meeting on Friday. “They hack in, that’s what they do. They’re good at it, we’re good at it, we’re actually better at it.”
This marks the first time Trump has publicly acknowledged the hack since it was brought to light last week.
The president has previously avoided public confrontations with Russia about its digital influence activities. During a meeting with Putin in 2018, Trump went against U.S. intelligence findings and asserted that Russia did not meddle in the 2016 presidential elections, despite evidence to the contrary.
The latest hacking effort compromised the judiciary’s Case Management/Electronic Case Files — or CM/ECF — which allows legal professionals to upload and manage case documents, along with the public-facing PACER system that provides some general access to the same data. Officials fear that this breach might allow Latin American drug cartels to identify and target witnesses involved in criminal trials against them.
Officials believe the hackers exploited basic and unresolved vulnerabilities in the court filing system that were first discovered in 2020.
Following POLITICO’s initial report, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts announced that it is stepping up cybersecurity measures and is working with impacted courts to mitigate the impact of the attacks.
Congress is also keeping a close eye on the incident. Lawmakers on relevant House and Senate committees were briefed on the hack in July, and will receive a further classified briefing on the incident when Congress returns from its August recess after Labor Day.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Wednesday blasted the judiciary for not doing more to protect their networks since 2020, telling POLITICO in a statement that “like many Americans, I am sick of learning about hacks that could have been prevented with cybersecurity 101.”
“It is long past time to require federal courts to meet the same minimum cybersecurity standards as federal agencies,” Wyden said.
