International Criminal Court falls victim to cyberattack: second in two years
The ICC infrastructure in The Hague has been attacked by hackers. The incident came amid growing pressure following the arrest warrants for Putin and Netanyahu.
The ICC infrastructure in The Hague has been attacked by hackers. The incident came amid growing pressure following the arrest warrants for Putin and Netanyahu.
In late June, a sophisticated targeted cyberattack was carried out on the systems of the International Criminal Court. As CyberNews reports, this became known from the official statement of the ICC, published on July 1. Internal mechanisms detected the violation in time, and it was possible to contain it before the hackers caused significant damage.
A technical assessment of the scope of the threat is currently underway, and the court’s IT department is working to address potential consequences. The ICC noted that informing the public and participating states is part of its transparency policy.
This is the second major attack on the ICC in the past two years. In September 2023, an «unprecedented act of cyber espionage» was carried out, which prosecutor Karim Khan called «an attempt to undermine the authority of the Court.» At the time, it was also not disclosed what data may have been compromised.
Interest in the court has increased dramatically since it issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. In November 2024, a warrant was also issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on suspicion of crimes against humanity during the Gaza conflict. Neither Russia nor Israel are members of the court and do not recognize its jurisdiction.
Following the warrants, Russia announced the opening of criminal cases against ICC judges. Meanwhile, the court is also considering the possibility of recognizing mass cyberattacks as war crimes. In June 2023, it was collecting data on the attack on Lviv, when Russian hackers left more than 600 residential buildings without heat in the middle of winter.
In 2024–2025, the Dutch intelligence agency MIVD also recorded several attempts by Russian hacking groups to penetrate the systems of government institutions and critical infrastructure in the Netherlands.
We will remind you that we previously wrote about how cyber experts and investigators of the SBU are collecting evidence against hackers from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Federation who carried out the attack on Kyivstar. After conducting all the examinations and declaring suspicions, the materials of this investigation will be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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