Potential cyber attack hits Victoria's peak fire response agency

Victoria's peak fire response agency could be forced to operate manually for several days after it was hit by a suspected cyber attack.

Fire Rescue Victoria (FRV) was forced to shut down their system after it suffered a mystery outage which brought down crucial dispatch systems.

The shutdown means firefighters are reverting to radios and mobile phones to receive information, and it also impacted the organisation's internal email system and website.

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FRV acting commissioner Gavin Freeman stressed there has been no impact on the response to emergencies, but couldn't rule out the possibility of a cyberattack.

The acting commissioner said the disruption was first noticed early this morning and said its cyber-security protocols were quickly triggered.

"We are (still responding) but doing it in a more manual way, but it doesn't have any impact on response times or community safety," he said.

"Look at the early stage of investigation, what we do know is that our system has been compromised."

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FRV could be forced to operate manually for several days before it is deemed safe again.

At this stage there has been no demand for ransom, or any contact from a third party.