After the data theft affair

Meloni wants to strengthen Italy’s cyber security

Italy's Prime Minister Meloni expressed her concern. "No constitutional state can tolerate the illegal collection of dossiers, as has been the case several times in Italy recently," she said.

(Bild: APA/AP)

In Italy, the affair surrounding the illegal acquisition of confidential data by a hacker group continues to unfold. After it became known that the gang was spying on high-ranking politicians, industrialists, artists and athletes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to take countermeasures.

The government is therefore planning measures to strengthen cyber security. The national authority for cyber security is working on a package of measures to combat illegal access to strategic databases. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio emphasized that the laws must be adapted and brought up to date in order to better combat espionage attacks.

According to the Milan investigators, the suspects managed to penetrate several state and private databases. Thousands of data records were stolen from the Ministry of the Interior alone, mainly from the digital criminal record. The databases of the state pension fund, the tax administration and the national register of persons were also hijacked.

Contacts with Mossad and the mafia
The Milan-based gang of snoops is said to have met with people connected to the Israeli secret services last year. According to investigations by the Milan public prosecutor's office, a former carabiniere and the gang's hacker allegedly met two Israeli Mossad agents in February 2023. Contacts with the mafia and domestic intelligence services are also alleged to have existed.

President Sergio Mattarella and Senate President Ignazio La Russa, a member of Meloni's post-fascist Fratelli d'Italia party, are also affected by the data theft. In Mattarella's case, his private email account was hacked. Dossiers were opened on La Russa and one of his sons.

60 suspects
At the head of the hacker gang is the politically well-connected entrepreneur Enrico Pazzali, President of the Milan Trade Fair, who has since resigned from all offices. According to the Milan public prosecutor's office, around 60 suspects are under investigation, six of whom have been arrested.

Over 800,000 people wiretapped
The suspects are accused of setting up an organization of hackers, IT consultants and police officers, which also carried out illegal wiretapping. Over 800,000 people are said to have been targeted by the gang. On Monday, the Milan public prosecutor's office blocked a server in Lithuania that was used by the gang.

According to the Milan public prosecutor's office, the data was subsequently used by the buyers to put people under pressure. This was particularly often the case in business circles, but politicians and journalists were also affected by blackmail attempts.