Hacker attack in Europe: Italy's response was strong

“The alleged ransomware attack unleashed in half of Europe in recent days has found a prompt and effective response from almost all of the large companies that manage strategic services in Italy. From known information, starting from the large national companies, whose managers immediately met to evaluate any effects, no system has been irreparably compromised and, even where flaws have been identified, the response has been immediate. The media hype aroused by this story is therefore absolutely excessive". These the words f Alessandro Manfredini, president of Aipsa, the Italian Association of Corporate Security Professionals, which includes the security managers of the main large private companies in the country, many of which are included in the national perimeter of cyber security.

"The issue of cybersecurity needs to be tackled seriously, and we have been doing it for years by collaborating with the National Cybersecurity Agency, but alarmism is out of place. We are not in the middle of an exceptional emergency situation, a cyber war, as I have read" he concluded.

In the last hacker attack, someone didn't apply promptly the security update regarding A VMware ESXi server vulnerability found and fixed in late February 2021 (CVE-2021-21974). "Cybercriminals are very quick to target organizations that are not keeping up. System updates on this scale may seem like a "mammoth task", but nothing compared to the potential result of a malware attack designed to specially exploit those who still have a vulnerability - adds Fabio Buccigrossi, Country Manager ESET Italy.

In Italy just 5 on a total of 791 servers compromised

"Right now we have 791 compromised servers in the world, of which only 5 are in Italy, while France has 220 and the USA 185 - says Domenico Raguseo, Exprivia's Cybersecurity director. The phenomenon therefore only affects Italy marginally, either because the hackers have decided to hit other countries more either because Italy has been more effective in proactively protecting itself by installing the necessary defenses". "It is difficult to attribute attacks to groups attributable to a nation, and we must take note that we must never let our guard down on system vulnerabilities" he concluded.

Actually, a new report from security firm Cynet says that 44 companies are compromised in Italy, and another 404 are potentially compromised. The truth is hard to find, and it is possible that these numbers will change.

"With regard to the worldwide hacker attack, the meeting held this morning at Palazzo Chigi, coordinated by Undersecretary with responsibility for cybersecurity Alfredo Mantovano, with National Cybersecurity Agency Director Roberto Baldoni and Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, served to verify that, despite the seriousness of the incident, in Italy no primary institution or company operating in sectors critical to national security was affected", said Palazzo Chigi in a statement.