On December 15, the pro-Russian hacker group NoName launched a hacking attack on the Italian Ministry of Defence. The hackers claimed responsibility for the attack on their Telegram channel, citing nine sites taken offline by the cybercriminals.
Pro-Russian hacker attack against the Ministry of Defence
In the message posted by the hackers on their own Telegram channel, claim to have hit nine sites, all belonging to the Ministry of Defence. Of these, at least eight are actually inaccessible (while the SIAC one seems restored and functional).
According to the first analyzes it seems to be a DDoS attack (Distributed Denial of Service), which overload the portal systems with too many requests causing the portal to collapse. Most sites are about i e-learning sites of the Italian armed forces.
The same group, just a few weeks ago, announced a similar attack against the Ministry of Agriculture of our country. Which actually had been offline for a few hours.
This is not the first time that a pro-Russian hacker group has attacked the Italian government. Last May (with the previous Executive, therefore) they had hit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and that of Cultural Heritage. The Killnet group had also launched an offensive against the State Police. Not to mention the attack on the European Parliament.
These groups are technically made up of cybercriminals who have nevertheless declared their affiliation with the Russian cause in the invasion of Ukraine. So, while not a direct response from the Kremlin, it remains in support of Russia and in all likelihood comes in retaliation for our country’s confirmed support for Ukraine.
At the moment there are no updates regarding the possible damage caused, we will keep you updated.