Music Victoria has recently become aware of unusual activity within the third-party voting system used for the public voted categories in its 2024 Awards.
Through internal investigations, including liaison with the third-party voting system Award Force, cyber security experts and legal advice, it has been found that targeted action by an unknown assailant/s has resulted in thousands of misregistered votes being falsely attributed to nominees, resulting in a change to the recipients of five of the six publicly voted categories.
We have referred this matter to the Victoria Police Cybercrime, Fraud, Scams and Online Safety Unit for further investigation and action.
The affected categories are:
The nominees in the affected categories remain the same.
The winners in the affected categories have changed.
The 2024 Music Victoria Award Winners for the publicly voted categories are:
The Music Victoria Awards strive to elevate and celebrate our wonderful music community. We acknowledge the disappointment and devastation this news may cause members.
We are in contact with all parties and stakeholders and will carve out space in the 2025 Award ceremony to present the winners in front of our industry.
Music Victoria continues to liaise with the third-party voting system Award Force and cyber security experts to ensure we mitigate the risk of an incident like this happening again.
As a peak body organisation, Music Victoria is committed to honesty, transparency and integrity.
The Support Act Wellbeing Helpline is a free phone counselling service for anyone working in Australian music or the arts. It can be accessed by calling 1800 959 500. The Helpline can help with mental health and wellbeing issues, career concerns, financial management, and conflict resolution. You don’t have to be in a crisis to call the Helpline; sometimes, you just need to talk it out.
If you have any further questions please contact us via mvawards@musicvictoria.com.au
If you have any information that can assist with the investigation, please contact the Australian Cyber Security Hotline on 1300 292 371.
Media contact only: stacey@daydreamnation.co
The Music Victoria Team
Why was it not picked up prior to the awards being issued?
This was a well-executed act of fraud, that was purposefully aiming to not be detected. Music Victoria had taken the recommended steps as outlined by Award Force (including but not limited to voter registration, vote limits, real-time monitoring, bot-detection) to prevent fraudulent activity and our pre-announce analysis had not found any anomalies.
Will the initial recipient have to hand back the prizes and trophies?
No, they will be able to keep them. Music Victoria is arranging for prizes and trophies to be delivered to the new winners.
What changes have been implemented to ensure this does not happen again?
Music Victoria continues to liaise with Award Force to request additional security features are added to the platform, seek advice from our legal team and cyber security experts, and review the process for the public-voted categories of the Music Victoria Awards.
Music Victoria has referred this matter to the Victoria Police Cybercrime, Fraud, Scams, and Online Safety Unit for further investigation and action.
