In 2013 a boy from Brescia attacked eight domains linked to the American space agency, while in 2023 another group hacked a satellite: but the aims of Italian hackers are often different from each other.
In August 2023, in Las Vegas, a group of Italian hackers succeeded in an unusual feat: hacking the systems of an American satellite orbiting the Earth. They were called mHACKeroni, their symbol was rigatoni with sauce, and that year they won the Hack-A-Sat 4, one of the most important world events dedicated to computer security. In short, nothing illegal, the purpose of the competition was precisely to test the security of US space systems.
Various hacker groups are operating in Italy, with purposes that can vary from cybersecurity to cybercrime. And in 2013 some criminals even managed to attack NASA.
mHACKers are ethical hackers
Ethical hackers are also called white hat and they use their skills to find vulnerabilities in computer systems before they can be exploited by real criminals. In this sense, Italy can count on a lively community, which has grown up around universities and research centers and which often competes in European or global competitions.
The mHACKeroni, for example, were born in 2018 and bring together experts from universities and groups spread across Italy. They frequently participate in Capture The Flaga sort of hacking Olympics where you have to solve encryption problems and defend computer systems in simulated environments. Another group that is part of the same scene is Fibonhack, from the University of Pisa: it mainly deals with the training of new talents and also contributed to Italy’s victory in Las Vegas.
TeamItaly: the Italian national hacker team
We also have an Italian national team of hackers. It is called TeamItaly and is made up of around ten young cybersecurity experts who train at the Cybersecurity National Lab of CINI, the National Inter-University Consortium for IT. It is a very important reality for our country which thus aims to identify a new generation of experts. Not surprisingly, it is supported directly by the National Cybersecurity Agency, which coordinates the entire Italian cybersecurity network.
TeamItaly has already given us some satisfaction: in October 2025 it won the European Championship for the first time, organized that year in Warsaw. The competition involved a series of tests including software analysis and attack simulations. Italy came first, demonstrating speed in solving complex problems, but also the ability to collaborate between team members to create a team.
Italy is especially famous for hacktivists
Hacktivists are hackers who fight to defend their ideas or as a form of political protest.
They act anonymously and the best-known group in our country is precisely the Italian branch of the great international galaxy Anonymous, famous for its disruptive actions also against the Russian government.
In February 2025, for example, the pro-Russian group NoName057(16) – the same one that is trying to claim responsibility for some of the attacks in recent days – targeted institutional sites and Italian companies. Anonymous Italia thus decided to launch a sort of counter-offensive, hacking Russian sites and publishing messages against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine. In technical jargon it’s called defacement and is the modification of the visible content of a website without any authorization from the administrators.
When an Italian hacker hit NASA
In 2013 a young man from Salò, a municipality in the province of Brescia, implemented a tactic of defacement even against NASA, violating eight domains linked to the American aerospace agency and replacing the home pages of the related sites. He failed to steal sensitive data or interfere with space missions, but he gained a certain notoriety for himself and for the group he was part of, the Master Italian Hackers Team.
However, it was a criminal action which, according to the Postal Police, was part of a long series which had also led to the violation of around sixty Italian institutional sites. Among those affected were the portals of the Penitentiary Police and rai.it. He was then reported and arrested in 2018: what betrayed him was the desire to boast of his exploits on social media.
