International Criminal Court Reveals Security Breach

The International Criminal Court (ICC) yesterday confirmed the discovery of suspicious activity inside its IT network but revealed little else of a worrying security breach last week.

The Netherlands-headquartered tribunal, which tries suspects of war crimes and crimes against humanity, posted a brief statement to X (formerly Twitter).

“At the end of last week, the International Criminal Court’s services detected anomalous activity affecting its information systems. Immediate measures were adopted to respond to this cybersecurity incident and to mitigate its impact,” it explained.

“Additional response and security measures are now ongoing, with the assistance of the host country authorities.”

Read more on war crimes: Ukraine: Russian Cyber-Attacks Should Be Considered War Crimes

The ICC said it would build on existing work to strengthen its cybersecurity posture, including “accelerating its use” of cloud-based technologies.

“In this context, support from states parties and stakeholders remains critical to further enhance institutional resilience under challenging circumstances,” it added.

There is a lengthy list of potential suspects who may benefit from finding out more about current ICC cases and potentially protected witnesses. According to Reuters, prosecutors are currently investigating 17 cases in Ukraine, Uganda, Venezuela, Afghanistan and the Philippines.

In March, the court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin – something that has prevented him from travelling to international conferences like the recent Brics summit in Johannesburg, for fear of being detained by ICC member states.

In June last year, Dutch intelligence officers prevented a Russian spy masquerading as a Brazilian citizen from gaining access to the ICC as an intern. Sergey Vladimirovich Cherkasov had used a “well-constructed identity” to conceal his ties to Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, according to the AIVD.

Editorial image credit: SARATSTOCK / Shutterstock.com