According to Italian intelligence and security agencies, around 34% of cybercrime operations against Italian public and private targets are linked to cyber espionage activities, which are mostly funded by hacker collectives affiliated with foreign countries. Along with the most spectacular massive campaigns of demonstrative cyber-attacks on institutions, large companies, and SMEs, which block the operation of web portals, intelligence records sophisticated attempts at "actions carried out for espionage purposes, in which the hostile actor accesses sensitive or confidential data for strategic or economic purposes," trying, at the same time, to "influence public opinion" by directing it towards political positions in its support. It is the "hybrid war", a phenomenon that has taken on worrying proportions with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. According to the most recent security service reports, "since 2022, Russia has been engaged in a hybrid campaign against the West in support of the military campaign against Ukraine. Moscow sees transatlantic backing for Kyiv as a deciding element in the outcome of the conflict. As a result, in the second part of 2022, he sought to divide the West domestically, separating the EU from the US and destabilizing NATO members". The Postal Police Service's checks validated this analysis.
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