The National Security 2020 document was published, relating to the action of Italian intelligence. Since its first edition in 2007, this report has been available on the national intelligence website and provides a clear analysis of the threats to security on the ground.
The report is divided into eight chapters, two of which are of direct interest to the IT world: the cyber threat, but also the hybrid one, understood as using the web to create disinformation. In addition, there is also an annex on cyber protection.
COVID emergency
It is highlighted that, as on other fronts, also that of the Cyber threat has been considerably conditioned by the COVID emergency, prompting the sector to bring a significant part of its commitment towards the containment of hostile projects, both of a state and hacktivist matrix or criminal.
Intelligence also warns against attacks by foreign speculators against companies suffering from the health emergency. The numerical analysis of cyber attacks revealed a general increase of 20%, seeing the main increase in attacks against the public sector, specifically against local administrations.
Attack techniques
Use of Scanning techniques with subsequent use of SQL injection is confirmed to be prevalent
With regard to attack techniques, the use of Scanning techniques with subsequent use of SQL injection is confirmed to be prevalent.
Phishing campaigns with the aim of installing malicious software remain numerically much lower but very dangerous. Even the dreaded ransomware have had the opportunity to exploit the new weaknesses introduced by smartworking to target various subjects both in the healthcare sector and in the national industry.
Hybrid threat
As for the chapter on the hybrid threat of the document, it is highlighted how Italy has been hit by disinformation campaigns aimed at creating a long-term strategic advantage for the authors of these, all by exploiting the inability of algorithms of social networks to verify the reliability of the news but also the algorithm system based on the user's gratification that leads him to an effective disinformation bubble.
