Italian Foreign Ministry under cyber-attack following Moscow’s accusations against Tajani

Zakharova rejects the accusation of interference and turns it back on the West. “There can be no question whatsoever,” she argued, “of Russian interference in electoral processes abroad. It is not our style, unlike the Western political elites who, without any scruples, brazenly, and what is more, in full view of the whole world, meddle in election campaigns, go so far as to kidnap the presidents of countries, exert pressure on the political class of the states that interest them, and, I repeat once more, feel entirely free to act as they please.”

She then adds: ‘Nothing stops them from shaping political processes in sovereign countries.’ An indirect – and not particularly veiled – criticism of the United States.

The name of this group is no stranger to the Italian cyber security authorities. No Name is behind DDoS attacks: a massive flood of data that brings websites to a standstill. These are not cyber-espionage operations, therefore, but demonstrations. Nevertheless, in recent years they have caused problems for central and local government bodies, as well as the transport, finance, energy and telecommunications sectors.

Meanwhile, the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the latest attack on the Farnesina. The alleged offence is unauthorised access to a computer system; the prosecutors are awaiting the submission of a report.

The pro-Russian group has already been the subject of an in-depth investigation by the Postal Police, led by Ivano Gabrielli, through CNAIPIC, the National Cybercrime Centre for the Protection of Critical Infrastructure, headed by Cristiano Leggeri.

This is the case with Operation Eastwood, the result of a structured investigation carried out as part of an international investigative task force coordinated by Eurojust and Europol, involving 14 European countries.

Investigators have meticulously reconstructed the infrastructure used by the ‘hostile actor’ to carry out the attacks: a network of Command and Control (C2) servers located in the Russian Federation, supplemented by additional servers distributed across Europe.

The investigations have identified three Russian nationals, believed to be the group’s directors, and other alleged associates residing in various countries around the world.

In this context, the investigations carried out by CNAIPIC, under the direction of the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office and coordinated by the National Anti-Mafia Directorate, have led to the identification of nine individuals. Five were found to be responsible for participating in the collective’s cyber-attacks and, as a result, were the subject of search warrants issued during the internationally coordinated ‘action day’.