Meloni says cyberattacks and bomb hoaxes show civilian infrastructure is under attack

Meloni's warning in Verona

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke to reporters on Friday, 6 November 2026, on the sidelines of an event in Verona. She grouped three kinds of incident together: cyberattacks on civilian targets, false bomb alerts on aircraft and attacks on food supply systems. Investigators are still working, she said, and it is not yet possible to say whether these incidents are connected. Even so, she argued, they all point in the same direction.

“They all tell us the same thing: today it is civilian infrastructure that is under attack.”

The incidents behind the warning

Meloni cited an attack on the French blood service, the Établissement français du sang, and said a digital security system had kept blood reserves intended for transfusions safe. Separate cyberattacks disrupted the refrigeration systems of shopping centres and supermarkets in several European countries. Italy is among the most affected countries in a wave of false bomb alerts across European aviation. One such alert concerned a Ryanair flight between Lisbon and Rome, which left two hours late after a security check of the aircraft by the special police unit UEP, a check confirmed by the PSP. Some of the cyberattacks have been attributed to Russian or pro-Russian hacker groups after claims of responsibility were circulated. Authorities have not identified the authors of the most recent attacks, at least for now.

The case for more spending

Meloni argued that defence and security spending in Europe must rise to protect the daily lives of citizens, not only to buy weapons. She asked whether paying for a digital protection system counted as defence spending or health spending. She called the idea that defence investment comes at the expense of health and hospitals a stupidity. Food supplies, hospitals and transport, she said, are now among the targets. Her remarks come as young people in Italy have held many protests calling for less spending on weapons and more on education.

Russia's denial

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, asked about the issue on 5 November, described the accusations against Russia as completely absurd. He said groundless accusations of this kind, which implicate Russia in whatever happens, have become a persistent trend in European countries. Russia has denied any involvement in the cyberattacks, and the hacker claims that were circulated remain unverified in the reporting.

What comes next

In the week of 9 November 2026, the European Parliament is due to discuss the cyberattacks on supermarkets and blood reserves recorded in several countries. Meloni said it was not yet possible to determine whether the blood service attack, the bomb alerts and the supermarket incidents share a common origin. The investigations into the blood service attack and the aviation alerts are continuing, and no suspects have been named in the sources.