Fire Rescue Victoria blames cyberattack for dispatch system outage
Victoria’s firefighting service says a cyberattack has disrupted its dispatch and email systems, forcing firefighters to rely on radios and mobile phones when responding to emergencies.
Fire Service Victoria confirmed it had been the victim of a cyberattack a day after announcing its automatic dispatch system had gone down.
Fire Rescue Victoria has been the victim of a cyber attack.Credit:Akalanka Sameera
“Preliminary investigations confirm this has been a cyber-attack by an external third party and that FRV systems are impacted,” it said on Friday.
The outage has affected most of the emergency service’s IT systems, including its network, emails and dispatch.
Firefighters are being alerted to emergencies by mobile phones and radio because the automated system has been impacted, FRV said in a statement.
However, it said community safety had not been compromised and crews were still getting dispatched to emergencies.
Acting Commissioner Gavin Freeman said the outage was first noticed early on Thursday morning. Credit:Chris Hopkins
“We have taken decisive action in response to this incident and are working around the clock with specialist cybersecurity firms and our partners in the state and federal governments, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre,” the service said.
Acting Commissioner Gavin Freeman said the disruption was first noticed in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The dispatch system was shut down at about 7.30am and the protocol was to close it down to work out what the issue was, he said on Thursday.
Freeman said the service expected the system to remain offline for days.
“But we’re planning probably for the next three or four days to be running in that manual system,” he said.
“If we can resolve things sooner, that will be great, but we’re not going to turn it back on until we’re definitely sure what has caused this outage.”
People have been urged to call triple zero if they require emergency services.
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