After the cyber attacks since 2022 by hackers belonging to pro-Russian groups, Italy is now also locking itself away to avoid “physical” actions on national territory. The alarm raised by the Financial Times on the risk of operations in Europe that could include sabotage and even attacks does not surprise the security services of our country that much, which already with the Russian invasion of Ukraine have raised the levels of control and monitoring of potentially dangerous situations, starting with cyber interference and infiltration, with continuous exchanges of information between the various intelligence and control agencies of the web network, but also of the infrastructures.
Two weeks ago an alert arrived from the United States for the allies, therefore Italy included, precisely on the possibility that Moscow wanted to raise the level of intrusion in those countries that have sided with Ukraine. And as the days pass, the alarm, also linked to the debate in some European states on the possible sending of NATO troops to the Ukrainian front, inevitably rises.
Disinformation and influence on public opinion
An escalation already foreseen among the possible future scenarios that take into consideration the risk of infiltrators within our borders or against Italian interests abroad. Not only specialists in disinformation and in orienting public opinion remotely, but also in action on the field. Although for now there are no concrete reports in this regard, the attention is continuous, and follows hand in hand that linked to the risk of attacks by subversive movements of Islamic origin, already at the center of increasingly high security measures, strengthened precisely in recent weeks with the increase in tension in the Middle East, the bombings on the Gaza Strip, the pro-Palestine mobilization and protests against Israel, often resulting in anti-Zionism.
The presidency of the G7
However, there is an awareness on the part of the investigative leaders that any emissaries from Moscow would still be truly capable of striking in Europe. And therefore also in Italy, which also has the presidency of the G7 2024, with the summit scheduled for a month in Puglia. A clear demonstration would be, as Spanish intelligence revealed at the time – despite the caution of the Madrid government – the murder of Maxim Kuzminov, the Russian defector who landed at the controls of his helicopter in a Ukrainian base in 2023, killed on Last February 13th in his refuge in Alicante. Not to mention in Rome the case of the former frigate captain Walter Biot, sentenced to 20 and 25 years, by the civil court and by the one with stars, for espionage in favor of the Russians, according to the accusation, selling military secrets to a Kremlin official.
The case of the 22-hour blackout in 2003 throughout Italy
In short, a Cold War framework, which joins the hybrid conflict already underway and now, net of the narrative of one side and the other, could make a leap in quality. Starting with new cyber attacks – on the model of those implemented in Ukraine – which aim to put entire infrastructures out of commission and destroy civil society management systems by interfering with management and security systems: above all transport and energy. The specter of the national blackout in 2003 which lasted 22 hours (then due to a fault in Switzerland) is still present today. Here too, at least officially, there are no current threats, but the perimeters of critical infrastructures have been strengthened: these are technologies that can be attacked.