Meloni: cyberattacks and bomb threats show that more money is needed for defense

On Friday in Verona, during a break at the Fieracavalli international horse fair, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told journalists that Europe needs to increase its defense and security spending. In her view, civilian infrastructure today is threatened not by distant dangers but by attacks that can be felt in everyday life.

She referred to recent events: a wave of false bomb threats sent to passenger planes, cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems, and an attack on the refrigeration systems of the French blood supply service. Meloni said that these attacks are "cause for concern," and while it is not yet known whether they are connected, they all point to the same thing: today it is food supply, hospitals, healthcare and transport that are under attack.

According to the prime minister, defense spending should not be seen merely as arms purchases, because it creates "security for citizens' everyday lives." As an example, she cited how hackers tried to alter the temperature of refrigerators storing transfusion blood, and the stock was saved by a security system that had previously been invested in. The prime minister also had a message for the Italian opposition, which claims that military spending is being taken away from healthcare. She called this "nonsense," since protecting health requires both. Part of the Italian press, however, accused her of using the false alarms to justify arms spending.

Ugar