International Criminal Court systems breached for cyber espionage

The International Criminal Court provided additional information about the cyberattack five weeks ago, saying that it was a targeted operation for espionage purposes.

The intergovernmental organization disclosed the breach on September 19, a few days after detecting anomalous activity on its information systems.

As an international tribunal, the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seated in The Hague, Netherlands, and its attributions are to investigate, and to hold accountable individuals committing crimes of concern to the international community.

Espionage operation

In a statement on Friday, the ICC shared new details about the action it took following the cyberattack and some initial results from the forensic analysis of the incident.

Current evidence is insufficient to attribute the attack, ICC said in a statement, adding that the Dutch law enforcement is currently running the criminal investigation.

The impact of the attack remains unclear at the moment and no evidence so far points to data entrusted to the Court being compromised. Should such evidence emerge, affected parties will be contacted immediately with direct messages from the Court.

Speeding up defense improvements

The ICC ICC says that it has already taken “all necessary steps to address any compromise to data belonging to individuals, organisations and States,” and will continue to do so.

ICC is reinforcing its risk management framework and preparing for potential repercussions from the cyberattack, such as security risks to victims and witnesses. Steps for improving digital security have also been accelerated.

The recent cyberattack occurred at a “time of broader and heightened security concerns for the Court,” with daily and persistent attempts to disrupt ICC’s systems and criminal proceedings initiated against several elected officials, including Judges of the Court and the Prosecutor.