Meloni voices concern over the sale of Tajani's personal data on the dark web

Italy's Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, on Saturday expressed her «piena solidarietà» with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani over the activity of pro-Russian hackers and the release on the dark web of personal data concerning him. In her statement, Meloni said that putting confidential information about members of the institutions up for sale is of great concern and must be tackled with the utmost determination.

According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, since October 26 the group NoName057(16), which the newspaper considers close to Russian military intelligence, has been offering money in exchange for passwords, addresses and personal information on 18 people it regards as enemies of Russia. They include, according to that newspaper and Domani, Rome prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, the head of the Postal and Cyber Security Police, Ivano Gabrielli, and the mayor of Aviano, a town that hosts a NATO air base.

Domani reports that, in some cases, the private data of these people may already have been released online, and that the list also includes the president of Eurojust, Michael Schmid, and the director of Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris. According to both outlets, the Rome prosecutor's office has opened an investigation following a police report, and Il Fatto Quotidiano notes that the attackers' page was still accessible.

Tajani wrote on X that he will not be intimidated and attributes his becoming a target to the Italian government's position on Ukraine. It has not been disclosed which specific data have been released or how they were obtained, and no official body has formally attributed the action to a specific actor.