Italy under attack again: Russian hackers target Ministries and Guardia di Finanza sites

Rome – This morning (Feb. 18), the Italian government and military sites came under a cyber-attack from Russia, claimed on Telegram by the hacker collective NoName057(16). The attacks began as early as yesterday when the group targeted local and air transport services and banking institutions (including Banca Intesa Sanpaolo and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena), congesting websites and making it impossible for users to access them. Today’s offensive, on the other hand, saw some 20 targets in the crosshairs – including the ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Economic Development, Infrastructure, and Transport, but also the sites of the Carabinieri (military police), Guardia di Finanza (financial police), and the Air Force – victims, again, of DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service).

What allegedly triggered the attack was the reference to the actions of today’s Russia and the Third Reich that annexed the Sudetenland, evoked during President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella’s speech at the University of Marseille on Feb. 5. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova harshly criticized the words saying: “During a lecture at one of the educational institutions, he said that he believed that Russia could be equated with the Third Reich. This cannot and will never be left without consequences,” the spokeswoman said according to Russia’s official Ria Novosti news agency.

On a new Telegram channel, hackers reminded the President of the Republic how “the Italian fascist regime of Mussolini was a loyal ally of Nazi Germany” and, today, “Italy is willingly supplying the neo-Nazi terrorist regime in Kyiv with deadly weapons.”

NoName057 had previously caused disruptions coinciding with controversies between Rome and Moscow. However, this time, the National Cybersecurity Agency also intercepted the wave and provided timely warnings to the targets of the attack, which had a minimal impact. In any case, according to experts, these are purely propagandistic and demonstrative actions.