- Cyberattack targeting Winter Olympics reportedly blocked
- Italy says the attack was “of Russian origin”
- La Sapienza University in Rome also hit by an attack
The Italian government has claimed a series of cyberattacks of “Russian origin” have been blocked from targeting the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina.
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the attack hit facilities connected to the 2026 Winter Games, including hotels in the Alpine resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo where atheltes were staying.
The wide-ranging attack reportedly hit around 120 targets, including foreign ministry offices in the US, as well as consulates in Sydney, Toronto and Paris, and La Sapienza university in Rome was also hit in a seemingly separate attack also attributed to Russian-linked hackers.
“Series of cyberattacks”
“We prevented a series of cyberattacks against foreign ministry sites, starting with Washington, and also involving some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina,” Tajani noted, adding that no significant disruption was caused.
The attack was claimed by pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16) claimed responsibility, describing the campaign as retaliation for Italy’s support for Ukraine.
“The Italian government’s pro-Ukrainian policy means that support for Ukrainian terrorists is punished with our DDoS attacks,” the group said on Telegram.
Russia is currently banned from competing at the Summer and Winter Olympics following its invasion of Ukraine, although some Russian-born athletes have been cleared to compete as neutral representatives, with no flags.
La Sapienza is one of the largest universities in Europe, with around 120,000 students. Following the suspected attack, it took down its website and other related computer systems, and is now trying to restore access using unaffected backups.
In a recent post and in stories on Instagram, the university said it took down its systems out of precaution for what was apparently a ransomware attack.
“As a precautionary measure, and in order to ensure the integrity and security of data, an immediate shutdown of network systems has been ordered,” the organization said.
It added an investigation is taking place, and some communication channels such as email and workstations are “partially limited”, with temporary “infopoints” set up for students to provide information accessible through digital systems and databases that are currently unavailable.
Via AP and BleepingComputer
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