The Uffizi Galleries in Florence has confirmed they were subject to a cyber-attack - but denied that the security systems protecting its famous works had been compromised.
They stressed that nothing had been either damaged or stolen, after hackers were reported to have infiltrated the museum's IT systems and accessed sensitive security data.
Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that hackers had infiltrated the museums' IT systems, allegedly extracting access codes, internal maps and the locations of CCTV cameras and alarms, before issuing a ransom demand.
But the Uffizi Galleries contested this account, saying its security systems were inaccessible from the outside.
The attackers appeared to have moved through interconnected systems, computers and phones, gradually piecing together a detailed picture of the museum's operations, Corriere reported.
