Cyber attack on Vic courts ’far more serious’, say authorities

The cyber attack disrupting Victoria’s court systems could be much worse than initially feared according to authorities scrambling to get to the bottom of it.

Hackers who targeted Victoria’s court system may have unauthorised access to thousands of cases dating back as far as 2016, it is now feared.

In a dramatic escalation of the major court security breach, authorities now believe the cyber attack is far more serious than first understood.

The Victorian court system was hit by a cyber attack late last year which led to unauthorised access which impacted video recordings, audio recordings and transcription services.

No other court systems or records, including employee or financial data, were accessed.

However there were fears hackers may have accessed sensitive recordings from cases between November 1 and December 21.

Court Services Victoria chief Louise Anderson said on Thursday it was not feared recordings from as early as 2016 may have been accessed.

Hearings from 2016 were isolated to the month of April at the Supreme Court at Ballarat and some County Court matters.

However there are feards recordings from 2019 related to the Supreme Court, County Court and Coroners Court across the state were accessed.

CSV is now monitoring for unauthorised publication of any recordings.

“The updated date ranges became apparent from Friday 5 January 2024 when CSV was able to analyse devices it had disabled on the affected audio-visual network,” Ms Anderson said.

“It took time to collect, analyse and verify this detailed and coded information from devices located in courtrooms in Melbourne and around Victoria.

“The date ranges vary based on a number of factors including storage capacity.

“The Supreme Court, Magistrates’ Court, Children’s Court and Coroners Court will continue their efforts to identify and notify impacted parties.

“Due to the volume of impacted matters at the County Court the Court will focus their efforts on notifying parties in particularly sensitive matters.”

The Herald Sun revealed this week that court screens and cameras across the state’s 51 magistrates court remain inoperable, hampering some online hearings.

It meant the courts could no longer facilitate hybrid hearings where some participants were in court and some were online.

Instead, lawyers had been told that hearings where an accused was on summons or bail needed to be heard in person at the relevant court location.

Legal sources said the problem had caused chaos with police prosecutors and practitioners ordered to appear in person for even minor matters.

However Ms Anderson said that after vigorous testing, video conferencing was re-established in most courts on Tuesday.

Hybrid hearings are expected to resume next week.

The Melbourne Magistrate Court. Picture: David Crosling

Shadow attorney-general Michael O’Brien said failure to secure Victoria’s court IT systems was a serious concern.

“The compromising of sensitive court proceedings potentially places vulnerable people at risk,” he said.

“The delays that this cyberattack are causing is only adding to Victoria’s court backlog which is already the worst in the country.

“Labor has underfunded Victoria’s courts for years so the Allan government must accept responsibility for this mess.”