Russian hack brings changes, uncertainty to US court system

The Supreme Court in Washington, with the Capitol in the distance. Legal experts raised the alarm when US court officials confirmed that their electronic case files had been compromised as part of a sweeping attack on US computer networks. Russian hackers seemingly gained access to a vast trove of private information hidden in sealed files, and that could include trade secrets, espionage targets, whistleblower reports and arrest warrants. — AP

PHILADELPHIA: Trial lawyer Robert Fisher is handling one of America’s most prominent counterintelligence cases, defending an MIT scientist charged with secretly helping China. But how he’ll handle the logistics of the case could feel old school: Under new court rules, he’ll have to print out any highly sensitive documents and hand-deliver them to the courthouse.

Until recently, even the most secretive material – about wiretaps, witnesses and national security concerns – could be filed electronically. But that changed after the massive Russian hacking campaign that breached the US court system’s electronic case files and those of scores of other federal agencies and private companies.