Italy's security infrastructure under strain as cyberattacks and hoax threats converge

Antonio Tajani announced on Saturday that he was being targeted by 'cybercriminals' who had shared his personal information online, which he attributed to Italy's support for Ukraine, according to The Local Italy. The disclosure came as Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Friday that civilian infrastructures were 'under attack', framing a series of incidents—including the bomb hoaxes affecting European flights—as part of a broader security challenge. While authorities have not yet confirmed whether the aviation threats and the cyberattack on Tajani are connected, the timing and the stated motivation suggest a coordinated campaign aimed at testing Italian resilience to hybrid threats.

The bomb hoaxes themselves targeted at least 25 flights across Europe on Thursday and Friday, with threats directed at Rome, Sofia, Warsaw and Madrid. France 24 reported that a group calling itself 'fighters of the Male State'—identified as a far-right Russian group—claimed responsibility for some of the threats. Deutsche Welle noted that no explosives were found in any case, but the disruption was extensive enough to prompt the EU transport commissioner to acknowledge the scale of the problem. The Guardian reported that more than 30 planes were subjected to security alerts over the course of the week, suggesting either a sustained campaign or copycat incidents.

Italy's position as a NATO member and supporter of Ukraine sanctions makes it a plausible target for state-sponsored or state-aligned hybrid-warfare operations. The targeting of a foreign minister's personal data is a tactic more commonly associated with Russian or Russian-aligned actors than with isolated hacking collectives, though attribution remains unconfirmed. Meloni's framing of the incidents as attacks on civilian infrastructure suggests the Italian government is treating them as a security matter rather than isolated criminal acts. The Local Italy did not report any official statement from Italian intelligence agencies, but the public acknowledgment by senior officials signals that authorities are monitoring the situation closely.