Update on FRV cyber-attack 7 February 2023

Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) has identified that the personal information of firefighter recruit applicants may have been accessed or stolen by a malicious third party in the recent cyber-attack.  

Firefighter recruit applicants are encouraged to view the notice as updated on 7 February 2023 for information on the proactive steps we are encouraging them to take.   

As announced on 11 January 2023, FRV has received confirmation that the criminals who attacked our IT systems on 15 December 2022 have shared FRV information on the ‘dark web’.  

It a complex task to access and analyse the data that has been shared on the dark web and our investigations are ongoing. We will provide more information as it becomes available.   

We strongly urge the media and anyone else from downloading sensitive or personal FRV data from the dark web and to refrain from contacting our employees directly.   

We also want to remind those who might wish to take advantage of this criminal act, that it is an offence to buy stolen credentials and those who do face a penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.   

Throughout this incident, community safety has not been compromised and FRV continues to dispatch crews and fire trucks to emergency incidents through mobile phones, pagers, and radios. The community should continue to call Triple Zero (000) in an emergency.   

FRV is continuing to take steps to recover our systems and we thank our employees and partners for their ongoing understanding and support.   

A number of systems, including access to phones and emails, have now been restored.   

We also acknowledge the significant support of the United Firefighters Union in assisting FRV to respond to the situation.