News Analysis: Cyber attack on Italian website raises concern on terrorism risks

A brief cyber attack on Italy's Tuscan website over the weekend, which was launched by a group claiming to be affiliated with the Islamic State(IS), has raised concern on possible terrorism risks the country is facing with.

Hackers assaulted Tuscan web site for the Partito Democratico, the political party of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi from Saturday to early Sunday.

During the attack, the normal contents of the site were replaced by the IS flag and a warning in English reading "Hacked by Islamic State. We are everywhere". The hackers also provided a website link to a Facebook profile under the name of Mohammed Ali, who listed "Islamic State" as one of his nicknames.

Some experts interpreted the short-term weekend takeover of the site as a warning shot against Renzi's political party in his home region, while some believe the event was probably "a kind of practical joke" by local hackers.

However, many experts have warned this is the type of attack Italy can expect from the IS.

"Nobody is expecting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to make a kind of frontal attack in Italy," Sabrina Magris, president of the International University School of Rome and Florence, a European institution that prepares negotiators for hostage and terror threats, told Xinhua.

"This particular event was almost surely a kind of practical joke in a part of Italy known for its pranksters. But this is the kind of disruption we can expect from the ISIS, something symbolic, involving communications."

The cyber attack reminds of a video warning from ISIS released in February which had the warning "we are south of Rome". The warning prompted the Italian government to close down its embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan capital.

Dario Parrini, regional secretary of the Partito Democratico, said there was no word yet on the identity of the hackers. He said police were conducting an investigation to identify the wrongdoers.

A police spokesman in Florence said he couldn't comment on an open investigations.

The latest developments came less than a week after a group of housing rights protesters broke into the party's Florence offices and launched smoke bombs. Officials would not say if the smoke bomb attack and the cyber attack were related.

Andrea Martino, a retired security consultant who has worked with the United Nations organizations in Rome, told Xinhua that a likely fake attack like the one in Tuscany should not be cause for Italy to let down its guard.

"Italian security officials must remain vigilant," he said.

"They can't laugh this off and then assume the next one will be a prank as well. Any kind of breech of security is serious, even if it's for a joke," Magris said.

"This time it was a political party, but if ISIS tries to do something like this and they attack the government or the Treasury or the banking system, the results could be very serious," she said. Enditem