Italy targeted

Russian hacker attacks on banks and airports

(Bild: ryanking999)

The pro-Russian hacker group NoName057 launched a series of cyber attacks on the websites of Italian banks and the transport sector of our southern neighbor on Monday.

The group claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Telegram messaging service and called Italian President Sergio Mattarella an "enemy of Russia", according to Italian media reports.

President rebuked Moscow's "war of conquest"
The background: In a speech at a university a few days ago, 83-year-old Mattarella drew parallels between Russia's aggression against Ukraine and the - literally - "project of the Third Reich". In both cases, it was a "war of conquest".

The cyberattacks were so-called DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks on the websites of Italian institutions, including those of Milan's Linate and Malpensa airports, the port authorities of Taranto and Trieste and the bank Intesa Sanpaolo.

Attacks initially without impact
The attacks initially had no impact. The Italian cyber security agency began to limit the damage to the affected institutions.

Recently, repeated cases of hacker attacks on important databases have been reported in Italy. An attack on the IT systems of Milan's Linate and Malpensa airports was carried out at the end of December.