[su_heading] Anonymous Italia and AntiSec-Italia, two hacktivist groups affiliated with the Anonymous internet collective, have breached and defaced four Italian healthcare organizations, leaking confidential data online.[/su_heading]
The leak of hospital data was carried out as part of the #OpSafePharma operation, a campaign launched in Italy, criticizing the government's stance on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
ADHD is treated with high doses of medication, even for milder signs of the disorder, to the exclusion of all other forms of treatment. Hacktivists argue that alternative treatments should be tried before prescribing these medications, and that big pharmaceutical companies should not be allowed to influence doctors to prescribe high doses of medication without limits.
The #OpSafePharma campaign has been underway since March 2016, with DDoS attacks against the Italian Ministry of Health, the Supreme Institute of Health, as well as multiple local health authorities.
A few days later, attacks followed that led to a breach of the databases of AIFA (ADHD Families Association) as well as the Red Cross branch in Italy.
The second stage of the campaign, #OpSafePharma 2.0, took place on June 1, 2016, with Anonymous posting data from the Italian National Institute of Health online.
The most recent phase of the campaign took place at the end of August, with attacks against the National Institute of Health's portal, MEDUSA, the Azienda Ospedaliera Santa Maria clinic, the University of Naples Federico II clinic, and the SL TO2 state clinic, in Turin.
The hackers breached the servers and defaced the websites, while also leaking files from the Naples and Turin clinics, while they did not hesitate to post links to the compromised databases on Facebook and Twitter.
