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.

Italy’s defense minister, Guido Crosetto, called for the country’s parliament to intervene, expressing concern that the practice could be widespread with Friday’s arrests being just the “tip of the iceberg,” as reported by La Milano.

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

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.

Gallo is among the men who have been arrested alongside others who run companies that specialize in cybersecurity. Dozens of other individuals are reportedly also under investigation.

In total “about sixty people” are facing charges according to public broadcaster RAI News, mostly regarding conspiracy to illegally access computer systems, but also for disclosing official secrets, corruption, and illegal wiretapping.

The hacked databases include strategic intelligence held by the police, Italy’s revenue agency and Bankitalia, as reported by RAI News. The data was allegedly sold to Equalize’s customers or used to blackmail businessmen and politicians in a practice that prosecutors said went back to at least 2019, and continued up until March of this year, according to reporting by Reuters.

Investigators, led by the anti-mafia prosecutor Francisco De Tommasi, warned that Equalise boasted to its clients of being able to intervene in investigations and trials and of having used contacts in the police and other public services to illegally obtain data.

According to the investigators, Equalize’s clients were typically large companies and law firms that sought to undermine their competition or to influence official decisions to their own advantage.

The scandal has prompted Italy’s interior ministry to investigate unauthorized access to the government’s internal databases, and has prompted the government to launch a broader examination into the security of Italy’s national IT infrastructure and its privacy laws.

Equalize did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Its website advertises its services as based on “the need to increasingly protect the economy from criminal interference.”