Italy has thwarted a series of Russian cyberattacks targeting the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the foreign minister said Wednesday, February 4, as security operations ramp up with just hours to go.
Political leaders, including US Vice President JD Vance, are expected to attend Friday’s opening ceremony, and security has become a fraught topic after it emerged that agents from ICE, the controversial US immigration enforcement agency, would be present.
Italy’s interior minister Matteo Piantedosi stressed on Wednesday that ICE agents would have only an advisory role. ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arm will operate within US diplomatic missions only and “are not operational agents” and “have no executive function,” he told parliament.
Just hours before the first sporting events, which begin Wednesday, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Italy has “foiled a series of cyberattacks” of “Russian origin.” The attacks were “on foreign ministry offices, starting with Washington, and also some Winter Olympics sites, including hotels in Cortina,” he said during a trip to the US city. His office did not provide further details.
Some 6,000 police plus nearly 2,000 military personnel are being deployed across the Games area, which stretches across half a dozen sites from Milan to the Dolomites. Bomb disposal experts, snipers, anti-terrorism units and skiing policemen are among those deployed, according to Piantedosi. The defense ministry is also providing 170 vehicles plus radars, drones and aircraft.
The prospect of ICE agents, currently embroiled in an often brutal crackdown on illegal immigration in the United States, operating on Italian soil has sparked widespread outrage in the country.
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. He said the anger over their presence, including the Milan mayor’s warning that they were not welcome in the city during the February 6-22 Games, was “completely unfounded.”
Pro-Palestinian activists are planning a demonstration during the arrival of the Olympic flame in Milan on Thursday, to protest Israel’s participation in the Games due to the war in Gaza. Demonstrations are also expected to coincide with the opening ceremony at Milan’s San Siro stadium on Friday, with a further march planned in the city on Saturday.
One protest organisation in Milan calls itself the Unsustainable Olympics Committee โ a play on the official International Olympic Committee (IOC). Critics of the Winter Games complain about the impact of infrastructure โ from new buildings to transport โ on fragile mountain environments, as well as the widespread and energy-intensive use of artificial snow.