The first to report the attack was the cybersecurity expert Claudio Sono, who on Twitter posted the screenshot of the ministry profile screen, whose name was replaced in vitalik-eth (where è eth is the abbreviation of Ethereum).
The Ethereum revolution that everyone is waiting for The blockchain project is about to change the system with which it certifies cryptocurrency operations towards one that reduces energy consumption by 99%. If successful, it could symbolize a turning point for the blockchain world. The breach appears to have occurred on the morning of September 15th. Since then, the account has continued to publish states that appear to sponsor the latest major Ethereum update scheduled for today, known as Merge, which will bring a new transaction validation system to the blockchain. To the approximately 14 status updates published between 9 and 10 in the morning, at the time of publication of this article, there are in fact some links that would refer to the Ethereum site. It is still not clear who is behind the attack, but around 12 o'clock the Mite managed to regain control of his account.
Il Mite has not yet made any statements on the matter, but the attack seems to have affected only the Twitter profile. On the contrary, the other social profiles of the ministry have been left intact, as well as the official website which works normally. This is not the first time the ministry has been targeted by cybercriminals. As early as last April, the ministry's entire website was blocked for days following an attack.
In addition to the Mite account, the exact same attack also targeted the Twitter profile of the Institute for International Political Studies (Ispi). In this case, in addition to changing the name and profile picture, the description of the account, which now sponsors Ethereum, was also changed. In addition, the attackers have also published two graphs, again relating to the Ethereum Merge.
The slow recovery of the GSE after the ransomware attack Two weeks after the intrusion, the Energy Services and Renewable Subsidies Manager puts a series of services back online, a sign of the impact of the breach claimed by Blackcat