NBC News, The New York Times, and Reuters have reported a cyberattack where hackers breached the US Marshals Service system on February 17th and stole sensitive information about employees and subjects of investigations.
Drew Wade, the Marshals Service public affairs chief, called the ransomware attack a “major incident” and stated that the compromised system contained law enforcement sensitive information, including returns from legal processes, administrative information, and personally identifiable information of individuals under investigation, third parties, and certain agency employees.
Although the Witness Security Program of the agency was not affected, the Marshals Service took measures by disconnecting the impacted system from its network and alerting the US Department of Justice, which has launched a forensic investigation into the incident.
Chinese hackers breached state government networks in March of last year, and reports surfaced in July about a cyberattack on federal courts. The SolarWinds hackers targeted numerous federal agencies in 2021, which led President Joe Biden to sign an executive order to strengthen the country’s cybersecurity measures. To reinforce the nation’s defenses, Google and Microsoft pledged billions of dollars.
