Pro-Russian hacker group targets Italian Foreign Ministry website

Italy’s cybercrime police spent Thursday responding to an ongoing cyberattack targeting the website of the Foreign Ministry, known as the Farnesina. Italian news agencies reported in the evening that the attack was believed to have been carried out by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16).

According to initial reports, the incident appears to have been a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, in which a website is flooded with fake requests to overwhelm its systems.

However, the attack was “effectively mitigated” by security systems “without causing any disruption,” Farnesina, said in a statement.

The ministry said it was closely monitoring the situation in cooperation with the National Strategic Hub and relevant authorities.

“Cybersecurity is a central element of the reform of the Farnesina approved last year. In recent months, we have strengthened our capacity to prevent, monitor and respond to threats, adopting all necessary countermeasures, including technological ones,” Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.

“In this context, Italy has decided to work with Romania and other EU member states to put forward proposals at upcoming European meetings to designate those responsible for cyberattacks, including those targeting Italian institutions.”

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