Some 33,000 serious cyber attacks since 2022-Piantedosi

(see related story on snooping case) (ANSA) - ROME, OCT 31 - Hackers have staged around 33,000 major cyber attacks in Italy since the start of 2022, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi told a question time session in the Senate on Thursday amid concern about the revelations from a Milan probe into a snooping gang that allegedly obtained data by illegally accessing State databases.
    The Milan probe into illegal hacking and snooping on personal police and interior ministry files involves more than 800,000 victims, police said Monday.
    It comes after the opening of a similar probe in Perugia in which several politicians, most on the right of the political spectrum, had their data violated.
    "The prevention and response capabilities to the cyber threat attributed to the Postal Police have been further implemented, through the creation of specific territorial operational units, capable of handling, between 2022 and 2023, over 25,000 cyber attacks classified as significant and more than 8,000 in the first eight months of 2024," the minister said.
    Piantedosi warned about the danger of the stolen data being used for political ends.
    "The investigations in Milan and those of the recent past have highlighted illicit activities aimed at creating dossiers," he said.
    "These raise the issue of the seriousness of the behaviour of those who might use the illicitly acquired data, not only for profit, but also to attack political opponents by altering the rules of democracy". (ANSA).