NSW police upgrade comms system amid hacker concerns

A spokesperson from the NSW police media unit said the funding will be used to "digitise and encrypt" the greater metropolitan area radio network, which is expected to "secure it from hackers". The upgrade is also expected to reduce traffic on the existing 25 NSW channels.

The spokesperson, however, emphasised that the security upgrade has "nothing to do with the nuisance calls" on their radio network and has been planned even before the issue was raised.

A media report said that a serial impostor has been tricking police radio operators into revealing names and addresses of motorists almost daily over the past month. The hacker then uses the information to rob motorists.

The New South Wales police have denied reports that the hacker on their radio network has used the acquired information to rob motorists.

The spokesperson said that they are aware of a number of illegal transmissions that have been made through the police radio network but maintains that that there is "no indication" that any of the details are being used in "any illegal activity".

"At this stage, there is no indication that any information was used in an illegal activity as the media report alleged," the spokesperson told ZDNet Australia.

The spokesperson added that the illegal transmissions to their network are mostly just "nuisance" calls to initiate some kind of police action and not much else.