Australian Firefighters Turn to Pagers and Radios as Ransomware Shuts Down Dispatch System

Hackers have compromised emergency dispatch systems, phones and emails of Fire Rescue Victoria in Australia by installing ransomware and disturbing the regular operations of the department.

Australia has been the focus of several high-profile security incidents in the past few months, but they’ve been mostly data breaches and not ransomware attacks. In 2021 alone, Australian authorities registered almost 500 ransomware-related incidents across the country, with the health sector the most targeted.

“Community safety has not been compromised and FRV continues to dispatch crews and appliances through mobile phones, pagers and radios,” said Fire Rescue Victoria. “Preliminary investigations confirm this has been a cyber-attack by an external third party and that FRV systems are impacted.”

“We have taken decisive action in response to this incident and are working around the clock with specialist cyber security firms and our partners in the State and Federal Governments, including the Australian Cyber Security Centre,” said the firefighting department.

Fire Rescue Victoria also said it doesn’t seem like any information was stolen during the attack, although that would be the exception. Most ransomware attacks in the past two years have followed a data breach, which the attackers use against their victims. So far, the assumption is that a data breach occurred.

The department had to bring extra people during security incidents to make sure someone was always operating the radio. The entire fire and rescue service in the state of Victoria is now functioning manually.