Draghi and Renzi targets of alleged hacking operation
Arrest of brother and sister in Italy raises alarm on vulnerability of public figures
Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, was the victim of an alleged hacking attempt, according to Italian police and prosecutors investigating an extensive cyber espionage operation targeting some of the country’s best known public figures.
Matteo Renzi and Mario Monti, two former Italian prime ministers, were also among those targeted, according to police who on Tuesday arrested Giulio Occhionero, 45, and his sister Francesca Maria Occhionero, 49, over the alleged hacking.
Mr Renzi was targeted while he was prime minister last year and the arrests are likely to ring alarm bells over the potential vulnerability of top officials to cyber attacks. Italian police said the hacking was directed at a “galaxy” of public officials who possessed “strategic and sensitive information” which could have “great value”.
Prosecutors in Rome said two attempts were made last year to hack Mr Draghi’s email account. The first attempt was on June 23, the day of the UK’s Brexit vote, with a second in July. The attempts were made on a Bank of Italy email address used by Mr Draghi, who was governor of the central bank before joining the ECB in 2011. It was not clear whether the efforts succeeded.
The ECB declined to comment on the alleged incident. One person familiar with the matter said there was no sign that any ECB account had been breached.
Mr Renzi, who resigned as Italy’s prime minister in December after losing a referendum, was allegedly targeted last June on his personal email account. Mr Monti was targeted on his Italian senate account and his account at the Bocconi University in Milan on four occasions between May and June last year.
According to Italian authorities, the alleged hacking operation by Mr and Ms Occhionero began about six years ago. The inquiry was conducted jointly with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, because sensitive data the pair are said to have acquired was stored on servers in the US.
Italian prosecutors said the hacking was conducted by sending malware, or malicious software, to targeted email addresses. They said the investigation began after a top executive at Enav, Italy’s air traffic control company, received a suspicious email from an unknown law firm.
Mr and Ms Occhionero are normally UK residents but were currently living in Rome, Italian prosecutors said.
A lawyer for Mr Occhionero, who will be questioned by a judge on Wednesday, said his client denied any illegal activity and had servers in the US because he had business there. A lawyer for Ms Occhionero could not be reached.
Other alleged victims of the ring included Fabrizio Saccomanni, the former Italian finance minister; Piero Fassino, the former centre-left mayor of Turin; Paolo Bonaiuti, a former spokesman for Silvio Berlusconi; and Gianfranco Ravasi, a cardinal in the Catholic Church.
Italian police said that Mr and Ms Occhionero were well known in the closely-knit financial circles of the Italian capital. Both had roles at Westlands Securities, a private investment banking firm founded in 1998.