In Italy, the affair surrounding the illegal acquisition of confidential data by a hacker group is spreading further. After it became known that the gang was spying on high-ranking politicians, industrialists, artists and athletes, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wants to take action.
The government is therefore planning measures to strengthen cyber security. The national cybersecurity authority is working on a package of measures to prevent illegal access to strategic databases. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio emphasized that laws must be amended and updated to better combat espionage attacks.
According to investigators from Milan, the suspects managed to break into several state and private databases. Thousands of datasets were stolen from the Ministry of the Interior alone, especially from the digital criminal record. The databases of the state pension insurance, the tax authorities and the national register were also hijacked.
Contacts with Mossad and mafia
The Milan-based gang of sleuths is said to have met with people linked to Israeli secret services last year. According to investigations by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Milan, a former carabiniere and the gang’s hacker allegedly met two Israeli Mossad agents in February 2023. There are also alleged to have been contacts with the mafia and domestic secret services.
President Sergio Mattarella and Senate President Ignazio La Russa, a member of Meloni’s post-fascist party Fratelli d’Italia, are also affected by the data theft. In Mattarella’s case, her private email account was hacked. Files have been created on La Russa and one of his sons.
60 suspects
The hacker gang is headed by politically well-connected entrepreneur Enrico Pazzali, chairman of the Milan stock exchange, who has since retired. According to the Milan Public Prosecution Service, around 60 suspects are being investigated, six of whom have been arrested.
More than 800,000 people were intercepted
The suspects are accused of setting up an organization of hackers, IT consultants and police officers that is also guilty of illegal eavesdropping. More than 800,000 people are said to have been targeted by the gang. Prosecutors in Milan on Monday blocked a server in Lithuania used by the gang.
According to the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office, the data was then used by the buyers to put pressure on people. This was especially common in business circles, but politicians and journalists were also affected by blackmail attempts.
Source: Krone
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