Discontent Among Firefighters' Union over Cyberassault Countermeasures
Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) is facing criticism from the United Firefighters Union (UFU) over the delayed response to a cyber attack that occurred in December 2022. The attack had significant impacts on FRV's operational firefighting, forcing the use of manual workarounds for rostering, firefighting, and turnout/response.
In July 2024, the firefighters, through the UFU, requested a Zoom meeting to update firefighters and staff on the attack and FRV's response. However, as of now, this meeting has yet to be held. United Firefighters Union Secretary Peter Marshall has criticized FRV for prioritizing conference attendees over firefighters and operational staff.
Marshall mentioned that a Zoom meeting with senior leadership was requested by the firefighters in July 2024, but no action has been taken on this request. He further stated that it is unacceptable that there has been no action on the request for a Zoom meeting, and it is beyond unacceptable that the C-level executive in charge of information security is delivering the inside story of the cyberattack to a paying audience instead of sharing information with those affected.
The stolen data included identification and contact information, medical records, passport and driver's license details, Medicare numbers, Centrelink numbers, and healthcare identifiers. The FIRECOM system, which provides critical live information to firefighters, was offline for approximately 12 months due to the attack. A notice published by FRV on January 6, 2023, stated that there were reasonable grounds to believe that personal information may have been accessed or stolen by a malicious third party during the attack.
The initial FRV web post about the notifiable data breach is now offline. The C-level executive reporting at the 2024 AFAC conference in Sydney about internal operations after the 2022 cyberattack is not publicly identified. The impact on the UFU involves increased cybersecurity measures and operational adjustments to protect firefighter data and coordination.
Marshall expressed that firefighters and FRV employees have been waiting for more than 18 months for answers about the cyber attack. He stated that they have a right to know what happened, who is responsible, whose information was exposed, where it has gone, exactly how systems were affected, when they will be fixed, and how this was allowed to happen in the first place.
The AFAC 2024 conference is taking place in Sydney, featuring Fire Rescue Victoria's chief information officer Chris Moon presenting on the first 48 hours of responding to a cyber attack in emergency services. Despite this, the firefighters and the UFU are still waiting for the promised Zoom meeting and answers about the cyber attack that has affected them for over a year.
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