Palermo in Southern Italy, home to about 1.3 million people, has shut down all its services, public websites, and online portals following a cyberattack on Friday. Italy recently received threats from the Killnet group, a pro-Russian hacktivist who attacks countries that support Ukraine with resource-depleting cyberattacks known as DDoS (distributed denial of service). While some were quick to point the finger at Killnet, the cyberattack on Palermo bears the signs of a ransomware attack rather than a DDoS. The councilor for innovation in the municipality of Palermo, Paolo Petralia Camassa, has stated that all systems were cautiously shut down and isolated from the network while he also warned that the outage might last for a while.
The city of Palermo is a very popular tourist attraction in Italy, bringing many visitors to the country. When an attack such as the one mentioned above occurs, much of the city and the residents are suffering. For precautionary purposes and to prevent the spread of the attack from hitting other systems, the city was forced to shut down of all their systems – which includes fax machines to get ahold of public offices, no fines for violations, and even traffic lights. In the year 2022, not having access to these critical systems are a recipe for disaster. Every business is vulnerable to attack, and the best form of defense is to be prepared with an Incident Response Plan and practicing safe IT practices to limit your exposure. Regularly patching your systems, performing security audits, limiting administrative access and segmenting your network to prevent further spread are the common themes for every business to follow to protect themselves from IT attacks.
