US Court System downed by technical glitch, not hackers
On Friday afternoon, a technical glitch brought down the U.S. Court System.
An initial report from The Washington Post cited a federal court clerk claiming the outage was caused by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack. However, as we first reported, there was little verification for it at the time.
A group calling itself the European Cyber Army claimed responsibility on Twitter, but did not offer any more detail on the alleged attack.
Government of #USA! We have taken the liberty of #Nuking your website http://t.co/skUNGyiQDT! We are the #ECA #EuropeanCyberArmy
— European Cyber Army (@ECA_Legion) January 24, 2014
Several sites were affected, including both the public web site for the courts and PACER, an electronic public access service that allows users to "obtain case and docket information from federal appellate, district and bankruptcy courts."
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As of Friday evening, all sites appeared to be functioning.
An FBI spokeswoman said the agency was reassessing its initial position as the facts are being reviewed. "The FBI is prepared to assist the U.S. Federal Courts if necessary," she said in an email to ZDNet.
However, a government official familiar with the matter said the suggestion of a denial-of-service attack remained possible and that its assessment has not changed as it was on Friday — in conflict with the FBI's statement on Saturday.
Editor's note on January 25 at 3:15 p.m.: Added new information from a report by The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, citing an unnamed FBI spokesperson. The headline was updated to correct the initial reporting.
Updated on January 25 at 9:40 p.m.: With updated FBI statement and with additional government source material.