It could have been a leaked password, forgetfulness, or carelessness. But, from what has been learned, the hacker attack that hit the Lazio Region is a ransomware, a virus inserted thanks to a cybercriminal who had access to a system administrator’s computer. A high-level profile in IT infrastructure. From this ‘privileged’ position it was easy to work in the dark, perhaps for days, and prepare for the attack launched at midnight on Sunday 1st August.
What is ransomware
According to experts, it is a powerful, but in itself simple, cyber attack: a ransomware, that is a code that is installed on the computer when an infected file is downloaded and that ‘protects’ all the content it encounters on its way. Files, folders, documents. As soon as a recipient opens a malicious attachment or clicks on a compromised link, the malware is downloaded to the user’s system and begins its data encryption work. It is not the first case: the most striking one happened last May, at the American Colonial Pipeline. But similar attacks have also occurred on the IT systems of many companies, including healthcare ones. But such an attack has never occurred on an Italian institution. At the moment no further details of last night’s attack are known, but the recorded mechanism is the one already known in similar cases: the infecting software (malware) has blocked all computer systems by encrypting them, and the attacker asks for a ransom to remove the disorder (ransom, in English, or ransom).
Redeem in Bitcoin, just as the Lazio Region was also requested. This is an increasingly urgent problem for institutions and companies, especially when they work in strategic sectors. According to experts, for many years the guard has been raised against this type of attack, which has become more and more frequent. The most recent data collected by Statista say that in 2019 63% of companies experienced some type of ransomware attack. A lot of money is invested to do this. If companies want to protect themselves they must invest as many resources, if not more.