NSW justice department breach exposed 9,000 court files including violence orders

The New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice detected unauthorised activity on the NSW Online Registry Website on 25 March 2025, during what officials described as routine maintenance. About 9,000 documents had been downloaded from the portal, which holds material from civil and criminal matters across the state's courts.

The files included court attendance notices, apprehended violence order applications setting out the grounds of complaint, filed statements and affidavits. Such documents can carry the names and addresses of both applicants and respondents, and officials warned the material may have included details of domestic violence survivors, witnesses and children.

Access came through a legitimate registered account on the JusticeLink system rather than an external intrusion. The Australian Computer Society's Information Age reported that a malicious Python script had been used to pull the files in bulk. The department disabled the account and applied a patch at about 8pm on 25 March.

NSW Police were notified the same day and opened an investigation under Strike Force Pardey, announcing it publicly on 26 March. Attorney General Michael Daley said the government was taking the incident seriously and that the department was working with Cyber Security NSW. Investigators said no stolen material had surfaced publicly by late March, and neither the number of individuals affected nor the identity of the person responsible had been established.