Italy recently faced a wave of DDoS attacks that targeted critical sectors, including government institutions, transport networks, and financial services. These attacks, attributed to the Russian hacker collective NoName057(16), caused temporary disruptions but were swiftly mitigated through early detection and response.
The offensive began with attacks on local and air transport services, as well as banking institutions like Banca Intesa Sanpaolo and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The hackers flooded websites with traffic, rendering them inaccessible to users. The following day, the attacks expanded to approximately 20 targets, including key government ministries such as Economy, Foreign Affairs, and Infrastructure, alongside law enforcement agencies like the Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza.
High-profile financial players, including Mediobanca and Nexi, were also affected, as were companies within the arms industry, such as Benelli Armi and Fiocchi Munizioni. The attackers used botnets, networks of hijacked devices, to generate massive amounts of malicious traffic, with the intention of overwhelming servers.
While the attacks were momentarily disruptive, security teams acted quickly to minimise their impact. An effective defence in this type of attacks requires real-time traffic analysis and automated mitigation to counteract the overwhelming force of such cyber offensives.
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