LARGE-SCALE COMPUTER HACKING ATTACK ALARMED ITALY

Sun 05 February 2023:

The National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN) of Italy announced on Sunday that a ransomware hacking attack had targeted thousands of computer servers throughout the globe and advised organizations to take precautions to protect their systems.

According to ACN director general Roberto Baldoni, the hacking attempt was large-scale and aimed to take advantage of a software vulnerability.

Italy’s ANSA news agency, citing the ACN, reported that servers had been compromised in other European countries such as France and Finland as well as the United States and Canada.

Dozens of Italian organisations were likely to have been affected and many more had been warned to take action to avoid being locked out of their systems.

Telecom Italia customers reported internet problems earlier on Sunday, but the two issues were not believed to be related.

The French were the first to notice the attack, most likely due to the large number of infections recorded on the systems of some providers in that country. Following that, the wave of attacks spread to other countries, including Italy.

There are currently a few thousand compromised servers all over the world, ranging from European countries such as France (the most affected), Finland, and Italy, all the way up to North America, Canada, and the United States.

Ransomware is a type of malware increasingly used in hacker attacks. They work in two stages. Once they enter the system they want to hit, they first close access to the data to their owners through encryption systems and then ask for a ransom to return the access keys. In fact, their name comes from the merger of ransom, ransom, and malware. Usually, cybercriminals who use this type of virus still back up their data and then sell them on the dark web.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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