{"id":185793,"date":"2026-02-09T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T11:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:05:12","slug":"russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian hackers target Tajani as Italy\u2019s Foreign Ministry strengthens its cybersecurity core"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decode39.com\/13438\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/\">Russian hackers target Tajani as Italy\u2019s Foreign Ministry strengthens its cybersecurity core<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decode39.com\/13438\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/\">https:\/\/decode39.com\/13438\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-09 10:41:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"decode39.com\">decode39.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Author: <a href=\"\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p> Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPro-Russian hackers escalated political pressure on Italy by targeting Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani online, while claiming responsibility for cyberattacks linked to Italian diplomatic and Olympic-related infrastructure. At the same time, Rome moved to reinforce its cyber defences, inaugurating a new CSIRT operations room at the Foreign Ministry to counter hybrid threats.<\/p>\n<p>\tWhy it matters: The political and communicative attack launched on Telegram by the pro-Russian hacker group Noname057(16) against Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani marks a new level of hybrid pressure on Italy.<\/p>\n<p>It is a claim of responsibility and a rhetorical escalation accompanying cyber operations targeting Italian infrastructure and services, aimed at exerting pressure on the political and diplomatic levels at a moment of heightened international exposure for the country.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s happening? On its Telegram channel, Noname057(16) stepped up verbal attacks and operational claims against Tajani, explicitly referring to statements by the Russian Embassy in Rome following the minister\u2019s public denunciation of cyberattacks against Italian embassy websites worldwide and facilities linked to the Milan\u2013Cortina Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>The group claims to have targeted, among others, websites connected to the Olympic committees of Spain, Lithuania, and Poland, the tourism portal of Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, and the website of Milan Malpensa International Airport.<\/p>\n<p>Circulated in a coordinated manner, the statement appears designed to amplify the political dimension of the action rather than its technical impact.<\/p>\n<p>Between the lines: Cyber operations linked to the Olympic context are not merely a matter of digital security. Major international events amplify visibility and, in turn, the symbolic value of disruption, especially when such actions intersect with clear, public political positioning on the international stage.<\/p>\n<p>The response. On the same day, Tajani inaugurated the new CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team) operations room at the Foreign Ministry \u2014 an infrastructure dedicated to monitoring, analysing, and responding to cyber incidents affecting the administration.<\/p>\n<p>The so-called Cyber Room enables the structured management of incidents that could compromise the ministry\u2019s information systems, from vulnerability detection to the coordination of technical countermeasures.<\/p>\n<p>The facility operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and is integrated into the national cybersecurity network led by Italy\u2019s National Cybersecurity Agency (ACN).<\/p>\n<p>By the numbers. From January 1, 2026, to date, the operations room has handled more than 150,000 hostile events, including around 30 distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against ministerial websites and web services.<\/p>\n<p>The most frequent threats include phishing, spear phishing, and spam campaigns, with roughly 150,000 malicious messages intercepted and more than 10 million communications originating from hostile sources.<\/p>\n<p>What Tajani said: \u201cWe are living in times of hybrid warfare. Thanks to the work of the Cyber Room officials, last week\u2019s attack on the websites of around 120 offices, including the Embassy in Washington, was neutralized without disruption,\u201d said Tajani.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this way, we are protecting our offices, the portal for consular services abroad, and even systems connected to the Milan-Cortina Olympics.\u201d<br \/>\n\u201cWe will continue to address cyber challenges both in terms of protecting the national interest and in the context of international cooperation and the promotion of Italian companies in the sector, which are always involved in the business forums we organize.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bigger picture. The sequence of events \u2014 political attack, cyber claim of responsibility, and the strengthening of defensive capabilities \u2014 shows how the digital domain has become an integral part of strategic confrontation.<\/p>\n<p>Italy\u2019s response points to a permanent operational capacity and to closer integration among national security, diplomacy, and international cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom line. The attack against Tajani is not an isolated episode but a signal of targeted pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The Foreign Ministry\u2019s response suggests that Rome does not view cyber threats as episodic emergencies but as a structural domain that requires constant, systematic protection.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<br \/>\n(Photo: Italy\u2019s Foreign Ministry)<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian hackers target Tajani as Italy\u2019s Foreign Ministry strengthens its cybersecurity core https:\/\/decode39.com\/13438\/russian-hackers-target-tajani-as-italys-foreign-ministry-strengthens-its-cybersecurity-core\/ Publish Date:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185794,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/decode39.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Il-Ministro-Tajani-inaugura-la-Sala-Cyber-CSIRT_1-scaled-1.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[33,24,35,25,27],"class_list":["post-185793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-computer-security","tag-cybersecurity","tag-hacker","tag-phishing","tag-vulnerability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185793"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185795,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185793\/revisions\/185795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}