International Criminal Court Says It Was Hacked

Facts

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) said Tuesday that its computer systems were hacked last week.¹
• The ICC said that it detected 'anomalous activity affecting its information systems' but that 'immediate measures were adopted to respond to this cybersecurity incident and to mitigate its impact.'²
• The ICC also said that the Dutch government was assisting in the investigation into the attack and that the court is also taking steps to strengthen its cybersecurity.³
• Although the ICC didn't disclose what part of its systems was accessed, the court possesses highly sensitive documents. This could include criminal evidence as well as the names of protected witnesses.³
• The ICC – which is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands – is the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, and is currently investigating crimes against humanity in 17 nations. In March 2023, it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for crimes linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.⁴
• This is not the first time the ICC’s cybersecurity has been compromised. In 2011, a Kenyan journalist was arrested by the ICC for leaking protected witnesses’ identities online.⁵

Sources: ¹Tvpworld, ²TechCrunch, ³Reuters, ⁴Tnw and ⁵Popular science.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Tnw. While the ICC hasn’t disclosed how severe this cyber breach was, it may have cost significant volumes of data. There are countless bad actors out to punish the court or ruin its cases. The ICC must be better prepared because the stakes are too high.
• Narrative B, as provided by Hackread. In concert with its host nation, the Netherlands, the ICC is responding to this attack in kind and investigating how it occurred. The court understands the stakes and has taken precautions in the past — but it’s always going to have to integrate more technologies into its security to keep up with an evolving online threat environment.