©2021 Reporters Post24. All Rights Reserved.
MILAN, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Hackers targeted around ten official websites in Italy on Saturday, including the websites of the Foreign Ministry and Milan’s two airports, putting them out of action temporarily, the country’s cyber security agency said.
The pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) claimed the cyber attack on Telegram, saying Italy’s “Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response”.
A spokesperson for Italy’s cyber security agency said it was plausible that the so-called “Distributed Denial of Service” (DDoS) attack could be linked to the pro-Russian group.
In such attacks, hackers attempt to flood a network with unusually high volumes of data traffic in order to paralyse it.
The spokesperson said the agency provided quick assistance to the institutions and firms targeted and that the attack’s impact was “mitigated” in less than two hours.
The cyber attack has not caused any disruptions to flights at Milan’s Linate and Malpensa airports, a spokesperson for SEA, the company which manages them, said.
While the websites were inaccessible, the airports’ mobile apps continued to function, the SEA spokesperson added.
Russian hackers targeted the websites of Milan’s two main airports on Sunday as part of a wider cyberattack.
The operator of Malpensa Airport and Milan-Linate Airport said flights continued as normal.
Italian police said the attack targeted the websites Italy’s Foreign Ministry website and the public transport networks in Siena and Turin.
What do we know about the attack?
Italy is cyber security agency said the attack was a “Distributed Denial of Service” (DDoS) attack that was mitigated in less than two hours.
The pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) claimed responsibility for the attacks in a Telegram post, saying Italy’s “Russophobes get a well deserved cyber response.”
The group has been known to target public institutions and strategic sectors in NATO member states in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
