Wyden calls for probe of federal judiciary data breaches, accusing it of ‘negligence’

The Supreme Court should authorize an independent review to better understand the impact of recent cyberattacks and data breaches of federal judiciary networks, Sen. Ron Wyden urged on Monday.

“The federal judiciary has repeatedly proven itself incapable of protecting the highly sensitive and confidential information with which it has been entrusted,” the Oregon Democrat wrote in a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts. 

Earlier this month court officials publicly acknowledged recent digital attacks “of a sophisticated and persistent nature on its case management system” had prompted them to boost their online defenses. 

Wyden requested Roberts commission an "independent, public, expert review” led by the National Academy of Sciences to examine a recent data breach of federal courts systems and a similar intrusion that occurred in 2020.

No one has claimed credit for either hack and the perpetrators have not been identified, though Russian hackers are suspected of playing a role.

“I strongly suspect that the judiciary is covering up its own negligence and incompetence which resulted in the security vulnerabilities that the hackers exploited,” Wyden, a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a longtime leader on digital issues, wrote.

He added that “normally” he would have asked the Homeland Security Department’s Cyber Safety Review Board to investigate the incidents but the panel’s members were dismissed almost immediately after President Donald Trump assumed office in January.

Wyden said the review should encompass the judiciary’s “cybersecurity practices, and the judiciary’s mismanagement of its own technology, including software development and procurement.”