The other countries being targeted are the US, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Romania, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine. Russian-linked hackers have claimed to have disrupted the infrastructure of Italy’s State Police anti-cyber crime arm after it thwarted hacking attempts on the Eurovision Song Contest. Hackers from the Killnet group announced in the early hours of Monday morning that claims made by Italian State Police referred to the disruption of cyber attacks over the weekend were false.
In the same announcement, Killnet also declared “declared war” on the 10 countries listed above, including the “deceitful police of Italy”.
It claimed it was responsible for the seemingly offline website of the police’s cyber department.
On Sunday, Italian State Police confirmed they were able to “neutralise and repel the attacks”.
They said: “Various computer attacks of a DDoS were nature directed at network infrastructure during the voting operations and the singing performance were mitigated in collaboration with the ICT Rai and Eurovision TV management.
“Identified by the Cnaipic of the Postal Police, numerous ‘PC-zombies’ were used for the cyber attack.”
The Eurovision song contest was held in Italy over the weekend, which saw Kalush Orchestra from Ukraine win the annual competition.
Authorities said the DDoS attacks were stopped during the contest’s grand final and during the final voting stages.
State Police also confirmed they had scoured the hacking groups’ associated Telegram channels in search of any intelligence that leads to the prevention of other incidents and the identification of the hackers’ location.
Last week, authorities in the country said the Killnet hackers had targeted the websites of the Italian National Health Institute and Automobile Club d’Italia, a national drivers’ association.
Hackers also forced web pages Italian senate’s website to be taken down for an hour after launching the targeted attack.
Italian senate speaker Elisabetta Casellati took to Twitter to calm any fears, insisting no damage was sustained.
She wrote: “Thanks to the technicians for the immediate intervention.
“These are serious episodes, which should not be underestimated.
“We will continue to keep our guard up.”
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