Tajani: "My data was spread on the dark web by Russian hackers, I won't be intimidated"

The pro-Russian hackers of "Noname057(16)" published data on the darkweb and requested news, for a fee, on Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.

"I will not be intimidated in any way. I will continue to work to defend my ministry and Italy, I will increasingly strengthen ties and collaboration with our allies to protect us together", writes the deputy prime minister on Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: "The sale of confidential information on representatives of institutions is of great concern and must be addressed with the utmost determination", she writes in a note.

Tajani: "Hackers ready to pay for more details about me and my loved ones"

Il Fatto Quotidiano was the first to break the news, according to which the data of Tajani's family members had also been released, as well as the Rome Prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi and the head of the Postal Police Ivano Gabrielli. Their profiles are accompanied by detailed sheets with CVs, public data, private telephone numbers, emails and home addresses. The head of the Farnesina underlines how these requests on the dark web actually expose him to new threats and intimidation: "They also involve my family, they are ready to pay for more details about me and my loved ones". For Tajani, those seeking information are moving "also in reaction to the activities that we have been putting in place for months to defend the IT security" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since last January 1st, he recalls, a cyber directorate has been created at the Farnesina "to protect us from cyber incursions by subjects often connected in some way to state entities hostile to us".

The "bounty" of NoName

Since October 26, the NoNames - who are considered linked to the GRU (Moscow's military secret service) - have placed a "bounty" on the sensitive data of 18 people, considered enemies of the Russian Federation. In the Italian group, in addition to Tajani, Lo Voi and Gabrielli, there is also Paolo Tassan-Zanin, mayor of Aviano (Pordenone), home to an American military air base. Among the prominent personalities abroad are Michael Schmid, president of Eurojust, Benjamin Krause, magistrate of the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office, Holger Münch, head of the German criminal police and Michael Alexander Martens, investigative journalist wanted by Moscow.