The Vice Society ransomware gang has claimed responsibility for the ransomware attack that crippled the Italian city of Palermo earlier this month.
The attack, which occurred on June 3, caused a large scale disruption of the IT services affecting both citizens and visitors to the city. The attack impacted a number of services, including the municipal police operations center, the public video surveillance management system, and all of the municipality’s services.
On June 8, the Vice Society ransomware gang posted an announcement on their dark net leak site regarding the Palermo attack, threatening to release all stolen files by Sunday if the requested ransom is not paid.
The group, however, hasn’t published any samples of stolen documents that would allow to verify their claims.
First spotted in mid-2021, Vice Society is a relatively new player on the ransomware scene. The gang has been noted for its ruthless behaviour. Vice Society was observed breaching networks by exploiting known vulnerabilities, including the PrintNightmare flaws in Microsoft Windows Print Spooler (CVE-2021-1675 and CVE-2021-34527).
Palermo officials have yet to share any details of the cyberattack despite the fact that it has been a week since the entire IT system that operates all of the city’s services has been shut down because of the incident.