Pro-Russian Hackers Leak Italian Foreign Minister Tajani’s Data on Dark Web
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Saturday that pro-Russian hackers have published his personal data on the dark web and are offering money for more information about him and his family. Tajani, who is also Italy’s deputy prime minister, said the leak was linked to Rome’s support for Ukraine.
In a post on X, Tajani wrote: “For days, cybercriminals have been spreading my personal data on the dark web and seeking other information, in fact exposing me and my family to new threats and intimidation.” He added that “backing in a transparent way the freedom and independence of a sovereign state” had made him a target, Reuters reported.
A bounty list of 18 names
Screenshots seen by Reuters showed Tajani’s photograph on a list of 18 people described as “citizens hostile to the Russian Federation”. The material was found in a section of the dark web accessible through the Tor network, during monitoring by cybersecurity authorities, according to a person close to the minister. The page, which Italian outlets say calls itself a tribunal, has been online since the end of October. Since 26 October, the group behind it has offered payment for passwords, addresses and personal details, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, the Italian newspaper that first reported the case.
Italian outlets described profiles carrying names, photographs, private telephone numbers, email addresses and home street addresses, alongside CVs and other public material. Four of the 18 are Italian. Alongside Tajani are Francesco Lo Voi, Rome’s chief prosecutor; Ivano Gabrielli, who heads the Postal Police, Italy’s communications police; and Paolo Tassan-Zanin, the mayor of Aviano, a small town in Friuli that hosts a United States Air Force base. ANSA reported that some German and Austrian officials also appear on the list.
Who is blamed — and what is not yet proved
Italian media have linked the page to NoName057(16), a pro-Russian hacking collective described in the Italian press as close to Russian military intelligence, the GRU. The group is best known for flooding websites with traffic to knock them offline, and Dutch police seized 800 servers linked to it in May. Neither Tajani nor Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni named a group, and the Italian government has not published full technical findings identifying those responsible. Russia had not publicly responded to the accusations as of Saturday, according to the BBC.
There is also no evidence so far that confidential diplomatic documents were taken or that the foreign ministry’s own systems were breached. The Italian government has not explained in detail what personal information was exposed.
Rome calls it hybrid war
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the incident as “a matter of grave concern” and blamed pro-Russian hackers, expressing solidarity with Tajani. The Farnesina, Italy’s foreign ministry, said its cybersecurity structures had identified the spread of the minister’s personal data in recent days in a Tor-accessible area, and expressed solidarity with Lo Voi, Gabrielli and Tassan-Zanin.
Rome prosecutors have opened a file after a police complaint. Il Fatto reported that the authorities have known about the bounty for at least two weeks and that the site is still reachable. Italy’s data protection authority, the Garante, warned media outlets, websites and platforms that obtaining, disseminating or republishing data that comes from illicit activity is itself a breach of data protection law, even when the person concerned is a public figure.
G7 to take up hybrid threats
Tajani has asked the French presidency of the G7 to put hybrid threats and cyberattacks on critical infrastructure at the centre of the foreign ministers’ meeting in Paris on Monday. The episode comes in a week in which hoax bomb threats disrupted flights across Europe and as Russia’s war in Ukraine continues ahead of US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi.
The European Commission’s technology commissioner, Henna Virkkunen, told Reuters that since 2022 Europe has faced hybrid operations including sabotage of critical infrastructure, drone incursions and cyber breaches. For Rome, the Tajani case is the most personal example yet: a serving foreign minister, named and priced on the open internet, because of his country’s foreign policy.
