Thousands of schools across Italy, Scotland, and Northern Ireland have been targeted by widespread bomb threats that local authorities have treated as suspected cyber-attack hoaxes.
Widespread Disruptions and Government Response
In Italy, roughly 6,300 state schools out of 7,476 received the threatening messages on Wednesday, while private schools remained unaffected. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated on Facebook that checks carried out so far showed no evidence of a concrete danger, describing the reports as linked to a strategy intended to create alarm and concern. Italy’s Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara noted that the incidents were likely a cyber-attack rather than a genuine risk, pointing to a broader European pattern targeting flights, supermarkets, and hospitals.
More than 700 schools in Scotland and Northern Ireland were also hit by similar threats. Scotland’s education secretary Mairi McAllan assured the public there was no risk, noting that specialist cyber-crime officers were working to trace the origin of the messages. In Northern Ireland, education officials instructed schools to remain open unless advised otherwise by police. Police Scotland stated that the warnings were immediately assessed as hoaxes, though some local authorities chose to evacuate certain buildings.
Investigation and Similarities in Threats
According to BBC News reporting, the emails sent to Scottish schools shared similar wording with the Italian messages and referenced a figure named Mikhail Andropov, though linked to a “Red Owl” project rather than the “Vilayat di Misoginistan” group named in the Italian emails. Italian officials reported that a single email appeared to have been blasted to thousands of inboxes on Wednesday morning.
Headteachers in Milan shared details about the suspicious messages. Anna Bertato told Italian media she checked the sender’s email address and found it was already classified as spam by a university student in Taiwan. Another Milan headteacher, Massimo Nunzio Barrella, told the Adnkronos news agency that he recognized the message as spam immediately upon its arrival at 08:59, describing the text as comical and deciding against an evacuation. Although some schools were initially evacuated across Italy, alarms were quickly lifted and students returned to classes, while Italian reports noted that roughly 280 school principals had already received similar threats in preceding days.
