Hacker attack hits Uffizi systems, museum remains open

The Gallerie degli Uffizi were targeted by a significant hacker attack between Saturday January 31, 2026, and Sunday February 1st, 2026, resulting in the shutdown of internal computers and work email accounts used by administrative staff.

According to information reported by the local press, the attack affected back-office services only. Surveillance, visitor reception and ticketing activities were not involved, and the museum remains open to the public on its regular schedule.

Technical teams at the Uffizi have activated backup procedures and are working to restore systems, but the disruption to administrative services is expected to last several days. Staff affected by the incident were instructed not to switch on their work computers without authorisation, to avoid remote connections, and to change email passwords as soon as possible.

The cyberattack occurred in the same time window as a separate attack that struck Sapienza University of Rome, temporarily making the university’s website inaccessible.

Italian authorities are investigating the incident to determine the origin of the intrusion and to assess whether any security vulnerabilities were exploited. At this stage, no damage to the museum’s digital collections or public-facing systems has been reported.

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