Hackers breaking into Victoria’s court system database has caused fears. According to court Service Victoria hackers have access to several weeks of recorded hearings. They first became aware of the cyber attack on December 21. However, the audio-visual technology was initially compromised on the first of November.
Lousie Anderson, CSV’s chief executive said in a statement that they have potentially access to recordings stored on the network. He also mentioned that no other data or system including both financial and employee data were accessed.
Meanwhile, the hackers have access to both video and audio recordings as well as transcriptions of the court. There are fears that highly sensitive information of cases have been either stolen or accessed. Such as testimonies.
All the hearings in the country court have been accessed including criminal and civil cases. Meanwhile, some committals in the Magistrates courts and one hearing in the children’s court. Also, all hearings in the Coroners court have been accessed.
The cyber attack was discovered when the staff were locked out of the computer on 21 December. They received a text that reads’’You have been PWNED’’.
Maintaining high security is the first priority
Ms Anderson took an immediate action of the incident and isolated the affected network. They also disabled it and ensured proper arrangements for operation across courts to continue. According to him, maintaining high security is the first priority in court cases. They are putting efforts to ensure their systems are safe. They are also making sure that people get notification in hearings where recordings have been hacked.
CSV is working with cybersecurity experts to investigate the incident. Meanwhile Acting Premier Ben Carroll ensured that we will get to the bottom of the incident.
