More than 300 schools in Italy were evacuated on Wednesday, November 11, after they received the same emailed bomb threat, Reuters reported — the latest in a series of hoax threats and cyberattacks that have targeted supermarkets, blood banks, air traffic and television broadcasters across Europe in recent weeks.

Source: Reuters

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara told the La7 television channel that at least 300 schools had been affected and that the number could rise. He later put the figure at 312, Corriere della Sera reported. Schools from Rome and Milan to Naples, Potenza and the province of Udine halted lessons while police and bomb disposal teams checked the buildings. No explosive device was reported found, and no injuries were reported.

What the email claimed

The message reached the schools shortly before 10 a.m. local time, according to a copy seen by Reuters. Its author claimed to have left a powerful explosive device in a plastic bag, ready to be detonated remotely, and threatened violence against Italians. The email also claimed a bomb had been planted in the engine of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's car. It was signed “Mikhail Andropov, leader of the Vilayat of Misoginistan” — a name and group that no source has verified, and which officials treat as part of the hoax itself.

Meloni: no concrete danger

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the bomb alerts posed no indication of any concrete danger and appeared aimed at “generating alarm and concern”. She said investigations were under way and that she had convened a meeting of senior ministers and intelligence officials for later in the day. Valditara said there was no need for alarmism: “In all likelihood, this is a cyberattack rather than a genuine threat.” Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said he would report to parliament on the incident.

Source: Al Jazeera

Same message in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland

Authorities in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland said many of their schools also received a similar email threat from abroad, but it was quickly classed as a hoax and did not disrupt classes there. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said the messages sent to schools there were being treated as a hoax, and the Northern Ireland Education Authority advised schools to stay open because police did not regard the threat as credible. Police Scotland likewise said the messages did not represent a credible threat. The Northern Ireland message had similarities with a bogus threat sent last month that the PSNI had already declared a hoax, officials said.

Part of a wider hoax wave

Reuters reported that the same purported author claimed responsibility for email bomb threats sent on Friday to newsrooms in Ireland and Bulgaria. The schools alert is a new and larger escalation of a wave this desk has been tracking: French prosecutors opened a probe on November 7 into whether hoax bomb threats against dozens of flights are linked to foreign powers, and hoax alerts hit European television and media organisations on November 6. Wednesday's incident also came days after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani revealed his personal data had been leaked on the dark web, an incident Meloni blamed on pro-Russian hackers, according to AP reporting. No authority has yet established who is behind the schools email, and no link between the cases has been officially confirmed.

Earlier in the same wave, French prosecutors opened a formal investigation into hoax flight bomb threats and possible foreign involvement. Read: France probes whether hoax flight bomb threats are linked to foreign powers

Last week the hoax campaign targeted broadcasters and newsrooms across Europe. Read: Europe's Friday bomb hoaxes hit media and flights

What happens next

Italian investigators are tracing the email's origin, the government's ministerial meeting was set to review the response, and Crosetto's report to parliament is expected to set out what the government knows about the campaign. For parents and school staff, the practical fact on Wednesday was simple: in Italy the buildings were emptied and checked one by one, while in Scotland and Northern Ireland the same message was judged not credible and classes continued.