Over the past week, almost 50 schools across Australia have been evacuated as a result of bomb threats received via pre-recorded phone messages which have since been deemed hoaxes.

Nine (9) schools in NSW, 20 in Victoria, 10 in Queensland and five in the ACT received similar voice messages threatening violent bombing and shooting attacks which Police now believe are the work of overseas hackers on school telecommunication systems. State and Territory Police have released statements confirming that at this stage of their investigations, there is no indication that terrorist groups such as Islamic State are involved and that the investigations are being led by the Fraud and Cybercrime Squads in each jurisdiction.

Chief executive of Intelligent Risks Neil Fergus has said that these events are a ‘clarion call’ for schools to reassess their emergency plans and risk management programs.

The threats

Nine NSW schools were the first to receive the fake bomb threat calls on Friday last week, and again this Monday 1st February. One of the schools confirmed that it had received a bomb threat via an electronic voice message. Students at the schools were either evacuated or put into lockdown, according to individual schools’ emergency management plans. A NSW Police spokeswoman told the SMH that the threats were ‘very low level’ and that there was ‘nothing at all’ to suggest that the threats were related to terrorism.

17 Victorian schools were evacuated or locked down on Tuesday 2nd February following a string of suspicious phone calls similar to those received in NSW. On Wednesday, after threatening hoax calls were received, three more schools were evacuated. The Victorian Government and Police have slammed the threats of bombing and shooting attacks on Victorian schools as ‘cowardly’. Education Minister James Merlino said that ‘these anonymous cowards will feel the full force of the law’.

In the ACT five schools were evacuated at various stages on Tuesday after a series of bomb threats were received that were very similar to those received in other States. An ACT Police spokeswoman confirmed that ‘the schools have been searched and nothing suspicious has been identified’. Police sent out a warning that it is an offence to make such threats and heavy penalties apply.

Students in 10 Queensland schools were also evacuated on Tuesday as, with a spokeswoman from the State’s Police commenting that they ‘are confident that the calls have come from overseas, and have been designed to cause significant disruption and media coverage. At this time, there is no credible evidence the threats could be carried out here.’

Cybercrime not terrorism

The Canberra Times has reported that in addition to the events in Australia, in the past few days, hundreds of schools across Britain, France, the US, Japan, the Netherlands and Guam have received co-ordinated threats that forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of students. A group of anonymous hackers called Evacuation Squad claimed responsibility on Twitter for the overseas bomb threats, but in an email to Fairfax media the group said that they were not behind the Australian hoaxes and instead suggested it was the work of a ‘copycat’.

Police in each State and Territory are confident that this is the work of hackers, rather than terrorists. As such, counter-terrorism police and the Federal Police have not been involved in ongoing investigations.

What schools should do now

As Mr Fergus correctly stated, the events of the past week should act as a clarion call for schools to reassess their emergency plans. That is, in light of these bomb threats schools should ensure that they have critical incident plans to implement in the case of an emergency situation such as a threat of violence against the school.

Schools may also want to review their phone systems for vulnerabilities, as a Victorian school has since done.

Although the recent pattern of bomb threats has not been attributed to terrorism, schools should still be alert to Australia’s current National Terrorism Threat Level, which is is ‘probable’, meaning that credible intelligence, assessed by security agencies indicates that individuals or groups have developed both the intent and capability to conduct a terrorist attack in Australia.

Schools should continue to exercise caution and be prepared for any threat made against them which may require them to activate a evacuation or lockdown procedure.

It is important to remember that different emergency situations will require different responses and as such adequate policies must be developed for each possible situation. It is equally critical to ensure that staff and administration are trained on the policies and procedures.

It is now an unfortunate reality that for schools, it is a case of when a school will receive a threat of violence rather than if they will. Emergency situations such as telephone bomb threats put schools in a tricky situation where they cannot ignore the risk to student safety (by assuming it’s a hoax), but the engagement of a poorly planned emergency management plan can lead to the kind of mass disruption that is exactly what the perpetrators want.