New pro-Russian DDoS attacks target Italian websites

Nearly 20 Italian organizations — including banks Intesa Sanpaolo, Iccrea Banca, and Banca Monte dei Paschi, as well as the Linate and Malpensa airports in Milan — subjected to pro-Russian hacktivist operation Noname057(16)'s distributed denial-of-service attacks on Monday amid increasingly strained relations between Italy and Russia, according to Reuters.

Operations of all targeted entities have not been significantly interrupted by the intrusions, which were deployed in retaliation to Italian President Sergio Mattarella's comparisons of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war with Nazi Germany's moves prior to the Second World War earlier this month, according to Italy's cybersecurity agency. While Intesa Sanpaolo, Banca Monte dei Paschi, and Milan airport operator SEA have not commented on the DDoS attacks, Iccrea Banca dismissed any disruption due to the incident. Such a development comes after Italy had almost 10 organizations' websites targeted by Noname057(16) in a DDoS attack in late December.