'Criminals, not State actors' behind wave of cyberattacks

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 6 - Premier Giorgia Meloni's government on Monday held a meeting of top cybersecurity officials after Italy was among several countries hit by a wave of attacks by hackers on Sunday, saying the attacks were probably not from a hostile state but perpetrated by criminal hackers who intended to exact ransom money..
    The attacks compromised dozens of IT systems in Italy in both the public and private sectors, according to reports.
    Cabinet Secretary Alfredo Mantovano, who is extremely close to Meloni, National Cybersecurity Agency Director Roberto Baldoni and Elisabetta Belloni, the director of the information and security department, were among the officials taking part in the meeting.
    After the meeting, the premier's office at Palazzo Chigi said that critical sectors of the Italian economy and public administration had not been hit in the wave of attacks.
    They said the wave was probably the result of action by professional criminal hackers.
    The office also said that those who had not protected themselves "paid the effects" of their lack of protection.
    Palazzo Chigi stressed the need to intensify protection measures.
    "With regard to the worldwide hacker attack, the meeting held this morning at Palazzo Chigi, coordinated by Undersecretary with responsibility for cybersecurity Alfredo Mantovano, with engineer Roberto Baldoni and Ambassador Elisabetta Belloni, served to verify that, despite the seriousness of the incident, in Italy no primary institution or company operating in sectors critical to national security was affected", said Palazzo Chigi in a statement.
    "In the course of the initial reconnaissance activities carried out by the ACN-National Cybersecurity Agency, together with the Postal Police, no evidence has emerged that points to an attack by a state subject or one similar to a hostile state; instead, the action of cybercriminals, who demand the payment of a 'ransom', is probable".
    The statement further said that since February 2021, cyber attacks "had been identified by ACN as hypothetically possible" and "the Agency had alerted all sensitive actors to take the necessary protective measures. Some took the warning into due consideration, others did not, and unfortunately today they are paying the consequences'.
    It explained further, using an analogy: "It is as if in February 2021 a particularly aggressive virus had started to circulate, the health authorities had urged fragile people to take appropriate preventive measures, and after a while the damage to health emerged for those who did not." (ANSA).