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Russian government-backed hackers have been implicated in two major cybersecurity incidents, targeting critical infrastructure in both the United States and Norway. These actions highlight ongoing vulnerabilities to nation-state cyber operations.
In the United States, it is alleged that Russian threat actors breached the federal court filing system, specifically the Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) and the Case Management/Electronic Case Files (CM/ECF) platform. This breach allowed access to sealed criminal records, identities of confidential informants, and other sensitive documents. The hackers were particularly interested in midlevel criminal cases, focusing on individuals with Russian and Eastern European surnames. This breach follows a previous Russian-linked cyberattack in 2020 through the SolarWinds compromise, which also affected PACER and multiple government systems.
Simultaneously, in Norway, Russian hackers successfully took control of a computer system managing a dam’s operations in April. The attack, lasting four hours, involved opening floodgates and releasing millions of gallons of water. Norway’s security police chief has attributed this incident to Russian hackers, viewing it as part of a broader pattern of Russian cyber aggressions targeting Western energy infrastructure. This includes past attacks on Ukraine’s power grid that resulted in significant blackouts.
In response to these breaches, the US federal courts are implementing enhanced security measures, shifting criminal cases with international links to separate systems isolated from the public PACER database. These incidents underscore the continuous threat Russian cyber operations pose to critical infrastructure worldwide.

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Russian government-backed hackers breached the US federal court filing system (PACER/CM/ECF), accessing sealed criminal records and confidential informant identities, while simultaneously taking control of a Norwegian dam system for four hours. The US courts are implementing enhanced security measures by isolating international criminal cases from public databases, as these incidents demonstrate the ongoing threat of nation-state cyber operations against critical infrastructure.

Russian Hackers Allegedly Breach US Federal Court Systems