RHC editorial team: 7 May 2024 12:46
The employees of the University of Siena woke up on the morning of May 6th with an unpleasant surprise: a cyber attack has brought the university network to a standstill, causing inconvenience and impeding communication between employees. This incident is not isolated, but is part of an international context of growing concern about cybersecurity.
The attack hit quickly, with employees discovering the problem as soon as they turned on their computers to start their workday. The phones worked, but the internal network was compromised, making effective communication between university offices impossible. Investigations revealed that it was an attack perpetrated by a malicious group who targeted the university’s IT infrastructure.
The IT managers of the University of Siena reacted promptly, communicating the attack to the National Cybersecurity Agency and preparing complaints to the postal police and the guarantor authority for the protection of personal data. However, regaining normalcy may take time.
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“The network infrastructure will be gradually restored and will return to its normal operation once full safety conditions are ensured,” they explain from the university. In the meantime, the university website is accessible from the outside, but internal communication remains compromised.
It is likely that the attack struck at a time of lower vigilance, as often happens on weekends when locations are less guarded. The previous Friday everything was working normally, so it is plausible that the attack was launched during the weekend.
The university’s response was prompt: “It was necessary to close the incoming and outgoing University network and to start the verification and reclamation operations of the integrity of the infrastructure, with the simultaneous evaluation of any damage caused”.
This is not the first time a public institution has been targeted by hackers. These attacks highlight the importance of adequate cybersecurity and constant vigilance to protect sensitive networks and data.
The Red Hot Cyber editorial team is made up of a group of individuals and anonymous sources who actively collaborate by providing preview information and news on cybersecurity and IT in general.
