Cyber Incident Victim: Comune di Bologna
Date:
Apr 2018
Location:
Italy
Summary
The City of Bologna's civic network and municipal website experienced a cyberattack attributed to the group AnonPlus, involving unauthorized content modifications including homepage defacement with their manifesto. Despite restoration efforts, the attack persisted, prompting technicians to update the content management software while warning of potential further disruptions. The incident caused extended website inaccessibility and service interruptions, leading to a deadline extension for nursery registrations due to technical difficulties faced by users. AnonPlus claimed the attack targeted entities allegedly manipulating public information to control populations, asserting their actions served public interest against corruption and oppression. The municipality apologized for inconveniences caused by the ongoing incident.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 2 techniques |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On April 26, 2018, the City of Bologna experienced a cyberattack targeting Iperbole, its civic network and municipal website. The attack, claimed by the group AnonPlus, involved unauthorized modifications to website content, including the homepage. The attackers replaced original content with a copy of their manifesto, which criticized governments, financial powers, and religious institutions for alleged oppression and manipulation of public opinion. Municipal technicians detected the breach when alterations appeared on the site, prompting immediate containment efforts. Despite restoring the compromised content, the attackers repeatedly defaced the site again, indicating an ongoing intrusion. By April 27, the site remained inaccessible, displaying a "under maintenance" notice as technicians worked to stabilize it.
The attack disrupted public services, forcing the municipality to extend the deadline for nursery school registrations to May 2 due to technical difficulties encountered by users. City technicians focused on updating the content management system software to patch vulnerabilities exploited by the attackers, acknowledging that the process would require several hours and might not immediately prevent further alterations. The municipality publicly apologized for the inconvenience caused by the outage. AnonPlus justified the attack as part of a broader campaign against entities they accused of manipulating information to control populations, emphasizing their self-proclaimed role as defenders of public sovereignty. No data theft or secondary disruptions beyond website defacement and service unavailability were reported in the available source material.