A catastrophic cyberattack knocked one of Europe’s largest universities offline for several days, with the admission of systemic vulnerability coinciding with an EU cyber security victory in Rome, where Italian authorities reported foiling a series of sophisticated Russian cyberattacks targeting the upcoming 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Europe has become a continent under digital siege from both opportunistic ransomware gangs and geopolitical adversaries.
On January 28, The European Union’s top cyber chief, Juhan Lepassaar, issued a dire warning that the bloc is “losing massively” against a relentless surge of state-sponsored and criminal hacking.
“We are losing this game… we are not catching up, we’re losing massively,” Juhan Lepassaar, executive director of the EU’s Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), highlighting told Politico, highlighting the slow response to increasingly sophisticated threats.
“We just don’t need an upgrade. We need a rethink,” Lepassaar told Politico, “Doubling the capacity is the absolute minimum.”
Cyber Attacks in Education Sector
According to Il Corriere della Sera, hackers from a previously unknown group called “Femwar02” used BabLock malware, also known as Rorschach, and allegedly sent a ransom link with a 72 hour countdown.
Universities are frequent targets. Last year, ShinyHunters hacked Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, stealing data without locking systems. Such education cyber attacks are part of a larger trend in Europe.
Students and staff have had to adjust quickly, with exams proceeding while registration is handled directly by professors.
“Some communication channels such as email and workstations are partially limited,” the university said, as IT teams work to restore systems from backups unaffected by the hack.
Despite the efforts, Europe struggles to protect its critical systems, leaving institutions vulnerable to cyberthreats, and recently La Sapienza University in Rome proved this argument after being offline for three days from ransomware attack, exposing weaknesses in EU cyber security.
By far, the most disruptive attacks in Italian higher education, demonstrates the serious impact of cyberattacks on educational institutions. The incident shed light on fragmented infrastructure, outdated platforms, and slow adoption of modern technology leave schools vulnerable.
EU Cyber Security Challenge
Europe has pledged to strengthen Europe cyber defenses, but capacity remains limited. European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) employs around 150 staff, far fewer than agencies like Europol or Frontex.
Cyberattacks in Europe are growing in scale and complexity. Italy recently reported foiled attacks of “Russian origin” on ministry offices and Winter Olympic sites, including hotels in Cortina as the country prepares to host millions of visitors for the Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics.
Past Olympic cyberattacks in Paris in 2024 and Pyeongchang in 2018 were also widely believed to be carried out by Russian actors, and British intelligence has warned similar activity was seen around Tokyo in 2021. These threats show how Europe cyber attack incidents are evolving, with education increasingly caught in the crossfire.
While efforts to develop a cyber security strategy EU continue, reliance on foreign cloud providers and fragmented national systems slow progress. The result? A surge in cyber attacks on education sector reflects both weak defenses and Europe’s digital competitiveness gap.
For now, the La Sapienza attack serves as a warning that Europe’s educational institutions are on the front line of digital threats. The incident underscores the urgency of coordinated action to strengthen Europe cyber defenses and improve EU cyber security across the continent, ensuring universities and public institutions can safely operate in a digital age.
Europe’s problem is not just cybercrime, but competitiveness. Cyber risks are rising faster than Europe’s ability to respond, with tens of thousands of new software flaws appearing each year and attackers now able to exploit them within days, often using AI.
While the EU is expanding its cyber organization and building its own systems to track digital weaknesses, it still depends heavily on foreign infrastructure and western security databases to keep its networks running.
Until Europe builds true cloud sovereignty and a unified cyber backbone, it will struggle to defend its institutions that hold the most critical data, leaving its digital future exposed in an increasingly hostile global tech race.
Inside Telecom provides you with an extensive list of content covering all aspects of the tech industry. Keep an eye on our Cybersecurity sections to stay informed and up-to-date with our daily articles.