One of the sons of late Luxottica boss Leonardo Del Vecchio, Leonardo Maria, has been placed under investigation in a Milanese mafia probe into alleged wide-scale snooping by secretly compiling dossiers on people, judicial sources said Saturday.
Banker Matteo Arpe is also among those probed in the case, which on Friday led to the arrests of six people, they said.
Thousands of pieces of information were taken from the national strategic databases, according to the investigations of the DDA anti-mafia investigative directorate of Milan and the DNA national anti-mafia office that on Friday led to 6 precautionary measures, including house arrest for the former 'super policeman' Carmine Gallo.
Those under investigation are accused of complicity in the illegal access of the alleged organization, composed of hackers, IT consultants and members of the police force and also centered on illegal wiretapping.
The investigation also involves former employees of an investigation company, SKP of Milan.
National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, national anti-mafia prosecutor said the case had revealed a gigantic and alarming market of confidential data.
"This investigation allows us to connect some dots and better understand this gigantic market of confidential information with entrepreneurial dimension in the acquisition of confidential information, he said.
Addressing a press conference on the investigation, Melillo spoke of an "alarming affair".
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio said hackers are increasingly ahead of the police and laws must be aligned and brought up to speed in order to better combat them.
"The bad guys are increasingly ahead of the States themselves, they even managed to hack the Kremlin, we must activate efforts to align the current legislation but also use our imagination because we must foresee what the bad guys will be able to do", he said.
"I believe that we are not safe and will not be safe until the law on the one hand and the technology at our disposal have managed to align with the technology available to crime".
Nordio reiterated: "Generally speaking, technology is advancing faster than the laws, it has done so in all sectors, starting with bioethics.
"The ill-intentioned are always a little ahead of the States, they have even managed to hack the Kremlin.
"We must activate our efforts to align the current legislation, which we are already doing, and use our imagination to predict, without having to chase the ill-intentioned".
Artificial Intelligence brings a greater risk of data manipulation, Nordio added.
"We are all exposed to the risk of dossiers: the real problem that will arise is not so much that of data capture, but soon and perhaps already now with Artificial Intelligence it will be possible to manipulate this data and it will be even worse: it will be easy to create a sort of virtual reality in a very short time", said the minister.
Milan Chief Prosecutor Marcello Viola told the press conference that most of the illegal snooping involved the Italian economic world.
"The most relevant front seems to be the world of economics and entrepreneurship," said Viola.
"At the moment there are no significant emergencies that lead to the world of politics".
Nordio, meanwhile, also said that a recent vast bank spying case involving a rogue employee of Italy's biggest bank had backfired.
The State attorney's office in the Puglia city of Bari is investigating a former employee of Intesa Sanpaolo bank who allegedly "illicitly" accessed nearly 7,000 times the bank accounts of VIP clients including Meloni, her former partner, journalist Andrea Giambruno, Senate Speaker Ignazio La Russa, Meloni's sister Arianna, head of the secretariat of her rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè ,National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, members of the military, and top footballers and entertainment figures.
Asked if there was a plot against the government as denounced by Meloni, Nordio replied: "Looking at the results of these investigations, I certainly agree with the Prime Minister.
"There was a dossier aimed at people of high political standing.
That was the intention but then the results proved to be counterproductive for those who activated that operation," said Nordio.
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