Environment Agency in the Abruzzo and Puglia regions

Summary

Italian hacktivist groups Anonymous and LulzSecITA conducted coordinated cyber intrusions targeting multiple entities, including the Environment Agency in the Abruzzo and Puglia regions, as part of a broader protest operation. The attacks compromised professional orders, government offices, and a telecommunications provider, with leaked materials from the latter including identification documents and financial records. The groups framed their actions as exposing institutional failures in data protection and privacy enforcement, though specific impacts on the environmental agency were not detailed in available reports.

Motives

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TTPs

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Description

On November 5, 2019, Italian hacktivist groups Anonymous Italia and LulzSecITA conducted coordinated cyberattacks against multiple Italian organizations as part of the annual Million Mask March protest. The attacks occurred on Guy Fawkes Day, an event historically associated with Anonymous-led demonstrations against political corruption, police violence, and environmental issues. Among the confirmed targets were professional orders (including lawyers' associations in Arezzo, Grosseto, and Perugia), the Prefecture of Naples, telecommunications provider Lyca Mobile Italia, and the Environment Agency serving the Abruzzo and Puglia regions. The hacktivists compromised websites and digital infrastructure, though specific intrusion methods against the Environment Agency were not detailed in available reports.

The groups exfiltrated significant data volumes from Lyca Mobile Italia, leaking 5.4 gigabytes of documents including customer telephone records, credit card information, passports, driver’s licenses, and internal corporate documents. Evidence suggested unauthorized access to the email account lycamobile[at]lycamobile[.]it, potentially granting full account control. No equivalent specifics regarding data compromise at the Environment Agency were disclosed. Anonymous Italia justified the breaches as demonstrations of institutional failures in privacy protection, explicitly stating their intent to expose security vulnerabilities rather than commit financial fraud. Lyca Mobile’s breach prompted analysis by cybersecurity experts regarding data authenticity and potential misuse, though no mitigation measures or responses from the Environment Agency or other public sector victims were documented in the source material.

Sources

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