Victoria Police officials announced on Saturday, June 24, they were withdrawing all speed camera infringement notices issued statewide from June 6 after a virus in the cameras turned out to be more widespread than first thought.

“That does not mean they [the infringement notices] won’t not be re-issued,” Assistant Commissioner Doug Fryer told reporters, explaining that he wants to be sure the red light and speed cameras were working correctly.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Ross Guenther told reporters on Friday that 55 cameras had been exposed to the ransomware virus, but they’ve now determined 280 cameras had been exposed. The cameras are not connected to the internet, but a maintenance worker unwittingly connected a USB stick with the virus on it to the camera system on June 6.

Fryer said that about 1643 tickets would be withdrawn – up from the 590 that police had announced on Friday – and another five and a half thousand tickets pending in the system would be embargoed.

Fryer said he was optimistic the 7500 to 8000 tickets affected could be re-issued, but for now police would not issue new tickets until police had reviewed the cameras to ensure they were functioning properly.

He added said the 280 fixed and red-light cameras would still continue to operate and tickets could be issued at a later date. The department’s 1000 highway patrol officers would also still continue to write tickets.

The “WannaCry” malware caused the cameras to continually reboot, Fryer said. Fryer said there was no indication the malware had caused inaccurate radar readings, but police were being “over cautious” to maintain public faith in the system.

“We’ve got one of the best camera systems worldwide and to have an issue like this is disappointing,” he said. “We need to make sure the integrity of our system is sacrosanct and it is beyond reproach.”

Police Minister Lisa Neville said she’d asked officials to look at strengthening their oversight of the speed camera contractors and how they were maintained. Credit: Facebook/Victoria Police via Storyful