Cyber-attacks: Piantedosi convenes the National Security Committee
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 10 November. The focus of the meeting will be on assessing the risks to public safety posed by cyber threats. Tajani: “We need to send a strong signal at G7 level.”
Key points
The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, has convened a meeting of the National Committee for Public Order and Security for Tuesday 10 November at the Ministry of the Interior. The meeting will focus on assessing the risks to public security posed by cyber-attacks and cyber threats.
The escalation over the last few days
After all, there has been an escalation in recent days. From the bounty placed by pro-Russian hackers on Minister Tajani, Rome’s public prosecutor Lo Voi and the head of the Postal Police, to cyber-attacks such as the one on the Brenner Tunnel, right through to the false bomb threats on European flights.
Tajani: ‘We need a strong signal at G7 level’
The Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, Antonio Tajani, also spoke on the subject: ‘There is a strategy in place and we must respond from a technological perspective; we are also calling for this at G7 level with great determination. A strong signal is needed; all democratic countries must be united in their purpose. Hybrid warfare undermines the democratic system,” said Tajani whilst visiting the Farnesina’s cyber centre following threats from the pro-Russian hacker group Noname.
The political debate
In short, this is becoming quite a serious issue. Whilst the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italia, Adolfo Urso, in an interview with *La Verità*, is pushing for ‘more data centres’ to guarantee ‘digital sovereignty, data security and economic growth’, for the chair of the Forza Italia senators, Stefania Craxi, “hybrid warfare is already on our doorstep and affects everyone, without exception. The target is the State, and tomorrow it will be the vote”, as she reiterated regarding Forza Italia’s draft bill on the ‘democratic shield’ presented in the Senate alongside her colleague Daniela Ternullo. Criticism, however, came from the opposition: “For days now, Italia has been under cyber-attack at every level: supermarkets with tampered refrigerators, banks, false bomb threats at schools and on aeroplanes. And Minister Piantedosi has only convened the National Committee for Public Order and Security for Tuesday. They’re taking their time,” stated Angelo Bonelli, spokesperson for Europa Verde and MP for AVS, highlighting how “the current government, through the 2025 Budget Law, has cut 15 million a year from the National Cybersecurity Strategy until 2037: 180 million less, whilst Italia invests less than half the G7 average in cyber defence’.
