On Saturday, Italian websites, including those of Milan's two main airports, Malpensa and Linate, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, were targeted by cyberattacks, and temporarily went offline. Italy's cybersecurity agency confirmed that the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack affected the targeted websites and provided quick assistance, mitigating the attack's impact in less than two hours, as reported by Arab News.
"Italian Russophobes receive a deserved cyber response," stated the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057 on Telegram, as noted by Il Fatto Quotidiano. The hackers expressed their actions as retaliation for perceived hostility towards Russia.
"The attack on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website began immediately after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed at Ciampino Airport," said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. "It is the third attack in three days by hackers targeting the ministry," he said, according to RTBF. He estimated, "Today's attack is certainly of Russian origin."
A spokesman for Italy's cybersecurity agency indicated that the Distributed Denial of Service attack is believed to be connected to the pro-Russian group NoName057. In DDoS attacks, hackers attempt to flood a network with exceptionally high volumes of data traffic to paralyze it, effectively making the targeted websites unusable.
Despite the DDoS attack rendering the airports' websites inaccessible, travelers could still use the mobile application for necessary services, and airport operations continued without interruptions. The SEA spokesperson assured that the cyberattack did not cause any disruption to flights at Milan's Linate and Malpensa airports, as noted by Il Messaggero.
The hackers also targeted other websites, including those of Siena Mobilità, GTT (Gruppo Trasporti Torino), and Federtrasporto. The websites of GTT and Federtrasporto remained operational despite being under attack, but disruptions affected users trying to consult information on arrivals and departures, as reported by Il Sole 24 Ore.
"We have been registering attacks of this type on various infrastructures and ministerial sites for three days," confirmed Ivano Gabrielli, director of Italy's postal police, referring to the recent cyberattacks, according to CNN. He explained that "these are attacks carried out cyclically by groups that support the Russian war on Ukrainian territory."
"The group NoName057 claimed responsibility for the attacks in a message on Telegram, stating that Italy's 'Russophobes get a well-deserved cyber response,'" said cybersecurity police spokesman Marco Valerio Cervellini on LinkedIn, as reported by RTBF. Cervellini noted that NoName057 targets public institutions and strategic sectors in NATO countries, including Italy, as part of a broader effort to escalate tensions in the digital realm due to their support for Ukraine during Russia's invasion.
The Italian police announced an investigation into the cyberattacks claimed by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057, according to RTBF. The National Cybercrime Center for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures of the Postal Police is supporting affected targets and working to restore services.
This article was written in collaboration with generative AI company Alchemiq