Nicholas Moore to plead guilty in Supreme Court hacking case

Nicholas Moore, 24, is expected to plead guilty to hacking the U.S. Supreme Court’s electronic document filing system. According to a court document, federal prosecutors allege that Moore intentionally accessed a computer without authorization on 25 different days. This unauthorized activity occurred over a multi-month timeframe between August and October 2023, during which Moore obtained information from a protected computer. At present, public records do not specify the exact nature of the information Moore accessed or the methods he used to compromise the system. The case highlights the vulnerability of the digital platforms used by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is the highest federal court in the United States.

The case was first spotted by Seamus Hughes, a researcher and journalist with Court Watch, a nonprofit organization that monitors court documents. The prosecution is being handled by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Moore is scheduled to enter his guilty plea via a video link on Friday. His defense lawyer, Eugene Ohm, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stated that prosecutors cannot provide additional information beyond what has already been made public in the court documents, and spokespeople for the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

This incident is part of a broader trend of cyberattacks targeting U.S. judicial infrastructure. The federal court system has repeatedly been targeted by external actors; notably, hackers working for the Russian government were blamed for a previous breach of the electronic court records system. In response to these persistent threats, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts—the government agency that oversees the federal judiciary—announced in August that it had strengthened its cybersecurity defenses to protect sensitive legal records.

Why it matters

This case highlights the ongoing vulnerability of U.S. judicial infrastructure, prompting the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts to bolster cybersecurity defenses against persistent threats.