Italy’s foreign minister says the country has already started swatting away cyberattacks from Russia targeting the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
Antonio Tajani told reporters on Wednesday that a series of cyberattacks targeted some of the government’s foreign offices, including the one in the US capital.
He said they were “of Russian origin,” but did not specify whether this appeared to be state-backed activity, nor provide details about the nature of the attacks, AP reported.
“We prevented a series of cyberattacks against foreign ministry sites, starting with Washington, and also involving some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina,” he said.
Tajani’s comments follow a warning from the UK’s cybersecurity agency not to underestimate pro-Russia hacktivists, and although it was issued in the context of attacks on UK critical infrastructure, Russia and those aligned to it have a long history of targeting the Summer and Winter Games.
Since it hosted the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, an event Russia hoped it could use a political springboard, the UK, US, and others have formally attributed several cyberattacks against the events in the years that followed to Russia.
These included various attacks on the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang and disinformation campaigns surrounding the Paris Games in 2024.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Russia from competing in the Games in 2017 following a doping scandal involving a number of its athletes, and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned it from all international sporting events in 2019.
That WADA sanction was due to be lifted after the 2022 Beijing Games, but Russia then invaded Ukraine, leading the IOC to impose an indefinite ban on Russian athletes.
Thirteen Russians will compete in Milano Cortina, but they must do so as independents – they cannot fly the Russian flag.
For decades, Russia has used sporting events, especially the Olympics, for political gain. From the 1950s onward, many believe that Russia saw the Games as a means to assert the value of socialism, with the rivalry between the USSR and the capitalist US pervading most major events for three decades.
Milano Cortina officially begins on February 6, although the Games’ events kicked off on February 4 with a four-fixture curling mixed doubles session in which Sweden, Great Britain, Canada, and Switzerland prevailed. ®