Cybercrime , Fraud Management & Cybercrime
Private Firm Accessed Italian Govt Database: Prosecutors
Foreign Minister Tajani Condemns Conspiracy as 'Threat to Democracy'
The foreign minister of Italy condemned as a threat to democracy the private investigation firm that prosecutors in Milan say illegally accessed government databases for years to assemble illicit dossiers.
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Four individuals are under house arrest, including former "super cop" Carmine Gallo, who Italian public broadcaster Rai said Monday housed a secret archive of paper documents and IT equipment in a garage owned by his secretary. Police also seized a server located in Lithuania.
Milan prosecutors said Equalize, the private investigation firm headed by Gallo, may have obtained data on 800,000 individuals from a police investigations database.
Reuters reported that Equalize from 2019 through March tapped into three key databases: one that monitored suspicious financial activities, a national tax agency system housing citizens' bank transactions, utility bills, and income statements, and the police investigations database.
"This is unacceptable, we have been saying it for a long time … Spying on people's private lives and then using the information for economic or political purposes is really a threat to democracy," Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said at an event on Sunday.
Prosecutors allege that Equalize had high-level support inside Italian and foreign intelligence services and in Italian organized crime. Employees were expected to have contacts in police forces and public agencies through which they could obtain data.
Members of the political opposition to the conservative government of Prime Minister Georgia Meloni on Monday called for a parliamentary inquiry and demanded to know if evidence exists of government involvement.
One arrestee is Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, described by Corrieri Della Sera as the mastermind behind the "Beyond" database Equalize created for its allegedly illegally obtained data. Calamucci allegedly created a backdoor ensuring access into the police database, the Milan newspaper reported. It also said Calamucci went online by the handle "Sem" and may have been part of the Anonymous hacking collective. Newswire Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata reported that authorities said Calamucci has at least 15 terabytes of illicitly collected data.
Data sold by the firm was allegedly used to blackmail businessmen and politicians including former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Senate President Ignazio La Russa.
Dozens of individuals are under investigation for their role in the spying scandal, including Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio, chief strategy officer of multinational eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica and son of the company's deceased, billionaire founder. The Financial Times reported Sunday that investigators are probing multiple contacts between Del Vecchio’s family office executives and Equalize staff in 2023. A EssilorLuxottica spokesman told the Financial Times that Del Vecchio has the full support of the company.
This Italian data scandal comes just weeks after authorities arrested an employee at Italy's biggest bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, for allegedly accessing data including that of the country's Prime Minster and her family (see: Breach of Italian Prime Minister's Bank Info Under Scrutiny).
