Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest organization, headquartered in Italy, is responsible for producing an annual international music competition. The event features semi-final and final rounds where artists representing various countries perform original songs. It is a major cultural event with live broadcasts that attract a global audience. The contest is hosted by a different country each year, with the 2022 edition taking place in Turin, Italy. Its format involves multiple participating nations competing through jury and public voting to determine a winner. The organization manages the logistical, artistic, and technical production of this high-profile televised spectacle.

During the 2022 contest in Turin, the organization confronted significant cybersecurity threats. Pro-Russian hacker groups, specifically Killnet and Legion, launched coordinated attacks targeting the event's network infrastructure. These assaults occurred amid heightened geopolitical tensions following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and followed prior attacks by the same groups on Italian institutional websites. Italian police and cybersecurity teams successfully prevented disruptions by blocking the attacks and actively monitoring the perpetrators' communications on Telegram. They also traced the geographic origins of the cyber operations. This incident highlighted the contest's status as a high-visibility target for politically motivated cyber activities and demonstrated the critical role of collaboration with national security agencies in safeguarding the event. The effective mitigation of these threats ensured the uninterrupted execution of the semi-final and final broadcasts.