ANCONA The Cup continues to function in fits and starts. There were still critical issues yesterday, with both telephone contacts of the service cyclically knocked out. «Not available» says the number’s smartphone. But it doesn’t last long: a couple of attempts and there’s the connection. Which is lost immediately afterwards. A rollercoaster that the citizens of the Marche would gladly avoid when booking health tests is involved.
The investigations
Meanwhile, investigations by the Postal Police continue to try to clarify the second attempted incursion into the Region’s IT systems, the one found on Wednesday and which completely disrupted the centralized booking system for a few hours. It is the fault of the forced quarantine of the entire regional IT system, necessary to verify that there have been no intrusions or data leaks. Obviously the database of dematerialized recipes is also involved, the one on which the Cup service is based. «We are present in the Region with the Nosc unit, the one that intervenes and deals with the prevention of cyber attacks on essential structures» communicates Doctor Lorenzo Sabattucci of the Police of state, manager of the Marche cyber security operations center. Which he warns: «The elements are still very few».
The steps
The agents will however continue their activity to shed light on attempted incursions. «The Prosecutor’s Office has already been alerted and as soon as we have collected the necessary elements we will communicate them» assures Doctor Sabatucci. Still early, therefore, to talk about matrices. As well as to say with certainty whether the two episodes (the one on Wednesday and the one on May 19th) are connected. “At the moment there are no elements that point in this sense but we need to understand what happened in these hours” explains the manager. Even though it has to remain within the scope of the secrecy of the investigation, it tries to explain what happened the day before yesterday in the Region. «The IT perimeters have security systems, it’s not a secret. Systems that “give alerts where there are signs of threats or indications in this sense”. As soon as the alert was received, the Region made a phone call to the Police. The object of the hackers’ desire is not yet known but it seems that “machines not connected to user services” were affected. What is certain is that “attention remains maximum”. Speaking about the impact that this type of attack can have on users, Dr. Flavia Carle, director of Ars Marche, puts her hand forward. Will it be necessary to quarantine the entire Marche IT system for every intrusion attempt? “It depends on the circumstances, it would be like asking if an accident will happen again with the same dynamics” she warns.
The cases
In short, each case has its own story. “We are preparing the necessary security systems and it seems to me that they are working,” she claims. Clearly “no one has a crystal ball”. As if to say: whoever lives will see. Another certainty is that «strengthening security levels cannot be done in 24 hours. We are proceeding step by step and successfully, given that we have managed to stop the bad guys” concludes Carle. Now he’ll have to wait. Wait for the cyber thieves to make their next move, so as to let the IT experts of the Region and the police do theirs. Of course: it is not certain that the last few days were the last hardships.
