The International Criminal Court has disclosed that the computer system was breached on Tuesday.
The hack at one of the most prominent international judicial organisations in the world will lead to the exposure of susceptible information about war crimes.
The ICC reported that it had discovered suspicious activity on its computer network at the end of the previous week, triggering an ongoing response.
“Immediate measures were adopted to respond to this cybersecurity incident and to mitigate its impact,” the ICC stated in a brief statement.
In order to try war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court was founded in the Dutch city of The Hague in 2002. Currently, the court’s prosecutors are looking at 17 cases, including ones in the Philippines, Ukraine, Uganda, Venezuela, and Afghanistan.
The identities of protected witnesses might be found in very secret records at the ICC, however, the court did not specify the systems that were accessed.
The National Cyber Security Centre of the Netherlands is aiding the investigation, according to a representative for the Dutch Justice Ministry, but did not elaborate further.
Marie-Hélène Proulx, president of the ICC Bar Association, claimed that unnamed security measures implemented in response to the incident had an effect on attorneys for defendants and victims “in the same manner as the court’s staff.”
“We commend efforts… in securing the court’s information systems and hope that the situation will be resolved promptly,” she added.
The court stated that it was working with the Dutch government to “analyse and mitigate the impact of this incident” in its statement. It said that steps were also being taken to improve its cybersecurity.
