\u201cThe pro-Ukrainian course of the Italian government leads to the fact that support for Ukrainian terrorists is punishable by our DDoS missiles on websites,\u201d read a statement on a Telegram channel purporting to represent the group Noname057.<\/p>\n
DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks halt access to a website by overloading its servers with traffic.<\/p>\n
AFP was not able to immediately verify the account\u2019s ownership but its statements appear to match those cited by cybersecurity analysts online.<\/p>\n
The group said it had attacked the websites of several hotels in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, one of the towns hosting events for the February 6-22 Games.<\/p>\n
Access to one of them remained blocked on Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Skiers and snipers <\/p>\n
Italy has deployed around 6000 police plus nearly 2000 military personnel across the Games area, which stretches across half a dozen sites from Milan to the Dolomites.<\/p>\n
Bomb disposal experts, snipers, anti-terrorism units and skiing police officers are among those deployed.<\/p>\n
The defence ministry is also providing 170 vehicles plus radars, drones and aircraft.<\/p>\n
Security is particularly focused on Milan, where political leaders including US Vice-President JD Vance are expected for Friday\u2019s opening ceremony.<\/p>\n
The issue has become a fraught topic after it emerged that agents from the controversial US immigration enforcement agency ICE would be present.<\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi stressed Wednesday that ICE agents, currently embroiled in an often brutal crackdown on illegal immigration in the United States, would not be patrolling the streets of Milan.<\/p>\n
ICE\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm will operate within US diplomatic missions only and \u201care not operational agents\u201d and \u201chave no executive function\u201d, he told Parliament.<\/p>\n
Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala last week said ICE agents were \u201cnot welcome\u201d, adding: \u201cThis is a militia that kills\u201d.<\/p>\n
Piantedosi noted it was standard for countries to send security officials to the Olympics, with Italy having sent them to Paris for the 2024 Games, and said the controversy was \u201ccompletely unfounded\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cICE does not and will never be able to carry out operational police activities on our national territory,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n
The HSI investigates global threats, and is separate from the department carrying out the US immigration crackdown that has sparked widespread protests.<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to Italy, Tilman J. Fertitta, said last week the HSI will be \u201cstrictly advisory and intelligence-based, with no patrolling or enforcement involvement\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Olympics, HSI criminal investigators will contribute their expertise by providing intelligence on transnational criminal threats, with a focus on cybercrimes and national security threats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ice House to Winter House <\/p>\n
But the row continues. A pop-up hospitality house organised by US Figure Skating, USA Hockey and US Speedskating at a hotel in Milan has even changed its name from \u201cIce House\u201d to \u201cWinter House\u201d.<\/p>\n
Small protests have been staged against the deployment of ICE in Italy, and further demonstrations are expected during the opening weekend of the Games, focusing on various issues.<\/p>\n
Pro-Palestinian activists are planning a demonstration during the arrival of the Olympic flame in Milan on Thursday, to protest Israel\u2019s participation in the Games because of the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
Other events are likely to coincide with Friday\u2019s opening ceremony at Milan\u2019s San Siro stadium, while a march is planned in the city on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Critics of the Winter Games complain about the impact of infrastructure \u2013 from new buildings to transport \u2013 on fragile mountain environments, as well as the widespread and energy-intensive use of artificial snow.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe pro-Ukrainian course of the Italian government leads to the fact that support for Ukrainian terrorists is punishable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[5660,9218,168,4373,32851,4756,11551,1224,5511,152473,6722,111,139,69,5106,10521,26859,49754,27217,8221,312,2437,1963,213,17902,152472,23644,102],"class_list":["post-268265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-attacks","tag-before","tag-ceremony","tag-cyber","tag-foils","tag-foreign","tag-hours","tag-italy","tag-just","tag-milancortina","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-olympics","tag-opening","tag-operations","tag-origin","tag-ramp","tag-russian","tag-says","tag-security","tag-series","tag-sports","tag-targeting","tag-thwarted","tag-winter","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}