Italy thwarted a coordinated DDoS campaign targeting Winter Olympics infrastructure hours before the Milano Cortina opening ceremony, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Wednesday.
The attacks hit approximately 120 sites, including Foreign Ministry offices (notably Washington) and Olympic hotels in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Italian authorities neutralized the campaign on February 4, two days before the official opening at Milan's San Siro stadium.
Pro-Russian hacktivist group Noname057 claimed responsibility via Telegram, framing the attacks as retaliation for Italy's support of Ukraine. The group has operated since 2022, primarily targeting government, media, and financial infrastructure in NATO countries. At least one hotel website remained offline following the attack.
Tajani attributed the attacks to "Russian origin" but provided no technical evidence. The IOC's Mark Adams declined comment on attribution, reflecting standard caution on state-sponsored cyber claims. Noname057's claim has not been independently verified, though the pattern matches their previous operations.
What This Means in Practice
The timing is consistent with Russia's history of targeting international sporting events since its 2017 Olympic ban following doping scandals. Previous attacks include the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games and disinformation campaigns around Paris 2024.
Italy deployed 6,000 police and approximately 2,000 soldiers for physical security across venues, supplemented by cyber defenses. The incident demonstrates why event-scale infrastructure requires layered DDoS mitigation: volumetric attacks can overwhelm standard protections, particularly for hospitality and public-facing government systems.
For enterprise teams managing critical infrastructure or high-profile events, the pattern is familiar. DDoS attacks remain the preferred tool for politically motivated groups because they're technically simple, deniable, and generate headlines. The real question is detection speed and mitigation automation.
Thirteen Russian athletes will compete as independents under the IOC's indefinite ban following Ukraine's invasion. The geopolitical context matters here: these attacks aren't technically sophisticated, they're politically convenient.
Italy's response time (neutralizing attacks within hours) suggests decent preparation. Whether that holds through the full event schedule remains to be seen. History suggests the attacks will continue.