Dozens under investigation in Italy amid scandal over hacked government databases and illegal dossiers

Four people were arrested in Italy on Friday, with dozens more under investigation, in connection with an alleged conspiracy that links current and former officials in the country’s security services to a private intelligence agency for the purposes of building illegal dossiers.

The alleged creation of such dossiers has been a growing scandal in Italy, with reported victims including senior politicians, business figures, footballers and the current Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who described the practice as “intolerable” and a threat to democracy.

Italian prosecutors said the conspiracy has “high-level support, in various environments, including that of the mafia and the secret services, even foreign ones.”

The hacked databases include strategic intelligence held by the police, Italy’s revenue agency and Bankitalia, as reported by RAI News. At the center of the arrests is a business intelligence company called Equalize, led by the former “super cop” Carmine Gallo, accused of hacking sensitive government and police databases to create dossiers for its clients. Read the full story.

Rajesh Dhawan

Rajesh Dhawan is a technology professional who loves to write about Cyber-security events and stories, Cloud computing and Microsoft technologies. He loves to break complex problems into manageable chunks of meaningful information.