Firefighters being dispatched with pagers, radios and mobile phones, months after cyber attack

Full restoration of Victoria’s firefighter computer dispatch system may still be months away, after a cyber attack in mid-December.

It was expected the Fire Resuce Victoria system would be quickly restored after being hacked, but some months later is not yet fully functional.

Firefighters are being dispatched to fires using pagers, radios and mobile phones more than three months after a cyber attack on Victoria’s firefighting service.

The December 15 ransomware attack forced Fire Rescue Victoria to shut down its critical computer dispatch system which is responsible for sending trucks to fires.

Officials expected the system to be back online within weeks but the Sunday Herald Sun has confirmed it is still not fully operational.

Sources inside the service say a fix could still be months away, with FRV throwing millions of dollars at the problem.

It is understood hackers gained access after an employee of an external contractor, mistakenly opened an attachment to an email which allowed the cyber attack to take place.

The attack began at about 4am on December, 15, with acting FRV commissioner Gavin Freeman telling reporters the next day the outage was likely to last four days.

FRV have told staff, and recruit applicants, that personal data may have been stolen in the attack which affected numerous internal servers, including its email system.

Stolen data may have included health information, employment histories, criminal histories, political or religious views, and bank and passport details.

Fire Rescue Victoria attend a scene in Geelong. Photo: Alan Barber.

An FRV spokesman was unable to say when the issues was expected to be resolved.

“Since the cyber attack, FRV has been focused on resolving restoration of systems and minimising the impact on FRV and the community,” she said.

“Significant progress has been made, and a number of systems have been restored and are back online, with robust workarounds established for others.

“FRV is continuing to work with the Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) to restore our Station Turnout System as soon as possible.

“Community safety has not been compromised and FRV continues to dispatch firefighters and trucks to emergencies through mobile phones, pagers and radios.”

The cyber attack also affected FRV’s payroll system.

“A key priority has been to ensure that every FRV employee gets paid,” the spokesman said.

“A detailed restoration plan is in place to ensure back payments are issued to anyone who hadn’t received their full entitlements as a result of the cyber attack.”

Opposition Emergency Services spokeswoman, Ann-Marie Hermans, said Victorians “deserve better than an emergency call system that is run on pen, paper and post-it notes.”

“We were told this issue would be resolved in days, yet months later there is still no fix in sight,” she said.

“Our frontline emergency service staff continue to do outstanding work and the Andrews Labor government must step up and provide the basic systems and resources they need to continue keeping Victorians safe.”