A Springfield, Tennessee, resident is expected to plead guilty to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court's electronic document filing system dozens of times over several months.
According to court documents, prosecutors said that between August and October 2023, Nicholas Moore, 24, “intentionally accessed computers without authorization for 25 days and thereby obtained information from protected computers.”
As of this writing, details about exactly what information Mr. Moore accessed and how it was accessed are unknown. Mr Moore is expected to plead guilty in court via videolink on Friday.
A spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which prosecuted Moore, told TechCrunch that prosecutors can't provide any further information that hasn't already been made public.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's request for more information about the incident.
Mr. Moore's lawyer, Eugene Ohm, did not respond to an email requesting comment.
The incident was first discovered by Seamus Hughes of Court Watch, a researcher and journalist who monitors court documents.
This is one of several cases in recent years in which hackers have penetrated the U.S. court system. In August, the U.S. Administrative Office of the Courts, which oversees the federal judiciary, announced that it had strengthened its cybersecurity defenses following a cyberattack on its electronic court records system.
Hackers working for the Russian government are said to be responsible for the breach.
Do you have more information about this incident? Or about other data breaches? We'd love to hear from you. You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely from your non-work device on Signal (+1 917 257 1382), on Telegram and Keybase @lorenzofb, or by email.