Third day of down. The real causes of the disruption are still unknown at the moment. But at the moment everyone, company and experts, exclude a hacker attack. In these hours around Italiaonline, the company behind Libero Mail and Virgilio, the technicians are at work trying to get the e-mail services back on their feet.
Reports of disservices on Downdetector.it are still tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands, if we calculate the reports over the three days of downtime. Other tens of thousands are reports via social media. People who cannot access their e-mail, that of their business.
How many Libero and Virgilio accounts are there in Italy
In Italy there would be 9 million active e-mail accounts created with Libero Mail and Virgilio. The latest report that talks about the distribution of emails in Italy is by Statesman. In 2018, it calculated that, out of 44 million email accounts used in Italy, the top email service in Italy was Gmail with 19.2 million users (45%).
The second one Libero Mail and Virgil with 11.1 million accounts (26%). Following Outlook with 6.2 million (14%), Tim with 4 million (9%) e Yahoo with 2 million accounts (4%). The rest divided between minor services (at the time) such as Protonmail and email.com. Today Italiaonline’s estimates are slightly lower, while there are no updates on other e-mail services.
How many Libero Mail and Virgilio accounts could there be today, in proportion
But there is a way to understand if the distribution of emails in Italy is the same. Not a precise method, but it helps. Analyzing the data breaches of the last two years, i.e. the list of private emails that have been spread by hackers and malicious actors to demonstrate that they have violated a database, it can be seen that the distribution is almost the same.
A list of 3,900 emails stolen during a hacker attack in 2022, for example, sees Gmail at 52%, Libero Mail and Virgilio at 23% among the Italian accounts. The rest, between corporate emails and other providers. It is not a precise method of calculation, but it can be used to get an idea of the current distribution on a relatively large sample.
Italiaonline’s apology: “I work tirelessly to solve the problem”
It is therefore understandable how large the use of Italiaonline services for emails is still in Italy. And the harm to users, who currently cannot access their mail, is understandable. Like the one for the company which, security experts confirm to our magazine, is very attentive to IT security.
Company that justifies itself with its customers. “We have been working tirelessly for several hours now to solve an unexpected and unforeseen infrastructure problem,” said Diego Rizzi, head of the technology section of Italiaonline. The causes, explains the manager, do not depend “on the systems developed by Italiaonline”. The cause must be sought elsewhere. At the moment it is not yet clear where. How long it will take to restore service is unclear.
Twitter: @arcamasilum