Vaccine bookings affected as hackers shut down Rome region's website
The website of Lazio, the Italian region that includes Rome, was down on Sunday after being hit by a cyber attack, meaning that people could no longer use it to book a Covid vaccine.
"A hacker attack on the regional data centre is underway... all defence and verification operations are ongoing to avoid prolonging the cut in services," the region said on its Twitter account.
"Operations concerning vaccinations may be slowed down."
The region's website, www.regione.lazio.it, was still down on Sunday afternoon.
The site for booking vaccinations was also unavailable.
The President of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, also wrote on his Facebook page.
"A massive hacker attack against LazioCrea computer systems that manage vaccine bookings is underway tonight.
"This is a very serious event, it is blocking a crucial service. We apologise to the citizens for the inevitable disruption to services.
"We have reported the attack to the authorities and I would like to thank all the employees who have been working tonight to defend the centre and to return to normalcy"
Initial information showed that a virus had paralysed the computer system, but that personal data remained safe, Italian daily Corriere Della Sera reported on Sunday.
The highly contagious Delta variant represents about 80 percent of new Covid-19 cases in Lazio, where 66 percent of the adult population has been vaccinated, the regional health commissioner Alessio D'Amato said earlier this week.
Nationwide, 60 percent of the population over 12 years old has been fully vaccinated, with 68.5 million total doses administered, the health ministry's website said Sunday.
Comments
See Also
"A hacker attack on the regional data centre is underway... all defence and verification operations are ongoing to avoid prolonging the cut in services," the region said on its Twitter account.
"Operations concerning vaccinations may be slowed down."
The region's website, www.regione.lazio.it, was still down on Sunday afternoon.
The site for booking vaccinations was also unavailable.
The President of the Lazio region, Nicola Zingaretti, also wrote on his Facebook page.
"A massive hacker attack against LazioCrea computer systems that manage vaccine bookings is underway tonight.
The highly contagious Delta variant represents about 80 percent of new Covid-19 cases in Lazio, where 66 percent of the adult population has been vaccinated, the regional health commissioner Alessio D'Amato said earlier this week.
Nationwide, 60 percent of the population over 12 years old has been fully vaccinated, with 68.5 million total doses administered, the health ministry's website said Sunday.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.