What Happened
In 2023, Court Services Victoria’s audio‑visual in‑court technology network (including recordings from Bendigo court hearings) was compromised in a cyber incident first detected on 21 December 2023, involving unauthorised access to video and audio recordings of court hearings between 1 November and 21 December 2023, with subsequent CSV updates confirming that some Supreme Court regional hearings in Bendigo from August 2023 may also have been accessed. The breach affected a single network used to store and manage court hearing recordings, disrupting audio‑visual and transcription services but did not involve other court systems or records such as employee or financial data. Public statements and reporting describe it as a ransomware-style attack, with staff locked out of systems and “YOU HAVE BEEN PWNED” messages directing them to the dark web, and experts attributing it to a likely Russian-linked ransomware group (e.g. Qilin), although CSV has not officially named the threat actor or disclosed any ransom demands. CSV has not published a precise number of records or hearings affected, but has indicated that only hearings recorded on the impacted AV network within the specified date ranges across multiple jurisdictions—including Supreme Court, County Court, Magistrates’ Court and Coroners Court—may have been accessed, and it continues to notify potentially affected parties while stating it is not aware of any unauthorised publication of the recordings to date.
