Fire Rescue Victoria not ruling out possible cyber attack

A state’s fire and rescue service claims it’s too early to rule out a possible cyber attack after its IT and communications facilities were forced down.

Firefighters in Victoria will have to rely on mobile phones and radios over the coming days after a possible cyber attack forced their computer dispatch system offline.

On Thursday, acting commissioner of Fire Rescue Victoria Gavin Freeman said the agency’s IT and phone systems were shut down around 5am as a “precaution”.

“We‘re not ruling anything in or out at this point in time,” he said at an afternoon press conference.

“At the early stage of investigation, what we do know is that our system has been compromised.”

FRV is experiencing tech issues with our IT systems. Crews & trucks are continuing to be deployed in response to incidents & community safety has not been compromised. We will provide further info as it becomes available. The community should continue to call 000 in an emergency.

— Fire Rescue Victoria (@FireRescueVic) December 14, 2022

Acting commissioner Freeman said firefighters had switched to using a “manual system” to communicate, but stressed response times would not be impacted.

“If the Victorian community calls triple-0, a fire truck is still dispatched the same way it always has been,” he said.

“We’re planning probably for the next three or four days to be running on that manual system.”