Courtrooms used to be controlled environments. There were rules, physical security, and processes designed to uphold fairness and integrity. That control is slipping away as trials shift online. Virtual courtrooms—hastily adopted during the pandemic—have drastically improved judicial fairness and are now a regular part of legal systems worldwide. But the shift has also revealed significant security vulnerabilities that could undermine the very due process they aim to uphold. The problem isn't the idea of digital hearings. It’s the lack of serious cybersecurity infrastructure behind them. Courts are still relying on generic video conferencing tools with default settings, weak encryption, and outdated systems. Judges, clerks, and attorneys operate from unsecured networks and personal devices. Meanwhile, attackers see an easy target.

Insecure Platforms, Real Consequences

Many courtrooms still use tools like Zoom, Teams, or local video solutions that were never designed to handle confidential, high-stakes legal matters. These platforms may offer basic encryption, but they often store data unencrypted or allow session hijacking. Unauthorized access isn’t hypothetical—it’s happened. From pranksters joining hearings to malicious actors listening in, these breaches are happening in plain sight.

Even more dangerous are attackers who don't interrupt proceedings but quietly record, scrape data, or intercept evidence. Some hearings are livestreamed without proper access controls. Others are recorded and stored insecurely; that's a data leak waiting to happen. If a witness testimony or classified document leaks, the damage is irreversible.

Real Incidents Underscore the Threat

In Michigan, a virtual court hearing for a domestic violence case was abruptly paused when the judge realized the defendant and the alleged victim were in the same house during the call—something that could have ended in real harm if not caught. In another case, a criminal hearing in Texas was derailed when unauthorized individuals repeatedly disrupted the session with profanities and explicit content, forcing the judge to postpone proceedings.

These aren’t minor glitches—they show how virtual courtrooms, when insecure, can be exploited in ways that would never happen in a physical setting. Likewise, disruptions like this damage public trust and put vulnerable parties at risk. They also demonstrate just how easy it is for attackers—or even uninvited onlookers—to compromise the integrity of legal proceedings with a single click. Of course, there are also more bizarre cases, such as a doctor joining a courtroom call during surgery, basically setting fire to HIPAA. 

Evidence Integrity at Risk

In the physical world, chain-of-custody protocols are sacred. In the digital courtroom, it’s a mess. Files are emailed, uploaded, screen-shared, and sometimes even transferred via unsecured cloud drives. At best, this opens up evidence of tampering. At worst, it makes it impossible to prove authenticity.

And now, deepfakes are entering the picture. Real-time AI-driven face and voice manipulation is no longer bleeding-edge tech—it’s available to anyone with a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). If virtual testimony becomes suspect, the entire premise of remote hearings collapses. Hence, we must address quandaries like this promptly, lest we’re forced to decide on important ethical questions ad hoc. 

Human Error and Targeted Attacks

Court employees are being targeted. Phishing emails disguised as court memos or docket updates are luring victims into handing over login credentials. Judges and lawyers aren’t trained to spot these attacks. A compromised account can give attackers internal access to schedules, case files, and evidence repositories.

And let’s not forget operational blind spots. Legal professionals are expected to secure their own environments—home routers, antivirus tools, software updates, and virtual backgrounds—with zero guidance. That’s not a security model. That’s chaos.

What Needs to Change

Virtual courts need purpose-built infrastructure. That includes:

• End-to-end encrypted platforms designed specifically for legal workflows
• Immutable logging for transcripts, evidence, and interactions
• Role-based access control to lock out unauthorized participants
• Secure, centralized data storage for recordings and documents

Equally important is mandatory cybersecurity training for everyone involved. Lawyers, clerks, judges, and IT staff need to understand the specific risks of working in a virtual legal environment. That means learning how to identify video manipulation, verify digital evidence, and respond to incidents quickly.

Courts also need secure data feed management systems to handle real-time information like case updates, hearing schedules, and evidence submission logs. Without centralized, authenticated feeds, court data can be intercepted, delayed, or manipulated—introducing risks at every stage of the judicial process. These feeds must be encrypted, logged immutably, and integrated with other secure court infrastructure.

Justice Depends on Digital Trust

We can’t allow digital courtrooms to become the weak link in the justice system. A trial isn't just about procedure—it’s about legitimacy. If participants doubt that a hearing was secure, impartial, or authentic, then trust collapses. And when trust collapses, justice fails.

Cybersecurity is no longer optional for courts. It’s foundational. If virtual courtrooms are going to be the new normal, they need to be fortified with the same seriousness we give to physical courthouses. Anything less is an invitation for disaster.