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The computer system of La Sapienza in Rome, one of the largest universities in Europe, is nearby 120,000 studentshave been down for three days following an apparent ransomware attack.
In post and story on Instagram published on Tuesday, the university said that it has left its security systems in place following the cyberattack, that it is investigating what happened and is working to restore all digital services, and that other means of communication such as emails and workplaces “are a little limited.”
The school also said it is working to restore systems based on backups, which were not affected by the hack.
As of this writing the Sapienza website is still down.
Italian daily Il Corriere della Sera report this week that the disruption was caused by a ransomware attack, which the school or other officials have so far confirmed. The hackers allegedly sent a link to the university asking for a ransom, which has a 72-hour countdown, which starts when the link is clicked.
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Do you have any information about this, or the Femwar02 ransomware group? From a non-working device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or via Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or email.
La Sapieza did not respond to TechCrunch’s emailed request for comment. It was unclear whether the university was still able to receive email at the time we reached it.
Spokesmen for the Italian national cybersecurity agency, Agenzia per la Cybersicurezza Nazionale (or ACN), which is investigating the incident, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, asking for more information and whether the attack was caused by ransomware.
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In another article on Wednesday, Il Corriere report that the hacker group behind the attack is called “Femwar02,” which was not known before this incident. The group used the BabLock malware, which was discovered in 2023 and is also known as Rorschachaccording to the report.
La Sapienza said the exams are going well, but students who want to take the exams should do so directly with the professors. The school also set up “infopoints” in several places on campus to provide information to students.
Like other types of organizations, universities and schools are frequent victims of fraud. Last year, the famous hacking group ShinyHunters he broke Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania and data theft – without the use of malware to hide its behavior – in order to take over schools. The hackers revealed this week that the schools will not pay the ransom.
