The pro-Russian collective NoName has claimed responsibility for a new hacker attack on the institutional sites of the Italian government. This time the cybercriminals have targeted the website of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, which is currently unreachable.
The group, NoName 057(16), is the same one that last February 22 claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on the sites of the Carabinieri, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Defense and some private companies such as Tim and A2a. That attack came in the days of the trip of the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, to Ukraine.
The claim of Russian hackers on Telegram
The group, in a message shared on its Russian-language Telegram channels, writes: “How many Italian sites do you think will be victims of our hardships today?”, suggesting that the one on the Ministry of Labor is only the first in a series of attacks that they may arrive within the day. Then, after the claim, another message: “Victory will be ours”, accompanied by a Russian flag.
NoName 057(16) is among the most active Russian groups in the cyber warfare alongside the kinetic conflict in Ukraine. The group was created a year ago, in March 2022, shortly after the entry of Russian tanks into the territory of Kiev. He immediately became the protagonist of a series of attacks against government entities and critical infrastructure in Ukraine and in the countries that support it. In particular Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway and Finland.
What is a Ddos attack, the type used by Russian hackers
Today’s attack is only the latest chapter in a long series of cyber offensives by Russia of which Italy has been the victim in the last year. Last year, in April, the Killnet group (which is also close to Russia’s foreign intelligence services) grounded the Senate, Defense and Foreign Affairs website. NoName did not specify the type of attack launched on the site of the Ministry of Labour.
But generally the group carries out Ddos attacks – Denial of service attacks – which occur through a coordinated offensive of tens of thousands of access attempts to sites simultaneously, causing the servers to collapse.