Chinese hackers (read APT) “pierced” the Ministry of the Interior: “The data of 5 thousand Digos agents were stolen”

Tl;dr seems to have been a move by the Chinese to put themselves in an advantageous position during a negotiation for greater integration on judicial cooperation between Italy and China. Probably to target Chinese dissidents abroad, which they do very often (example: Europe’s Blind Spot: China’s Transnational Repression – The Diplomat)

The data of 5 thousand agents from the Digos in the hands of Chinese hackers thanks to unauthorized access to the digital systems of the Ministry of the Interior. No sabotage, just the theft of information. The hackers were interested in the names, roles and operational locations of the agents engaged in sensitive activities: such asanti-terrorism hey controls on foreign communitiesbut also “the tracking of dissidents Of Beijing refugees in our country”. This was revealed in an article by Republic. Access to the computer data would have occurred between 2024 and 2025, piercing “the network of the Ministry of the Interior” and downloading “confidential data on the personnel serving in the various Italian police headquarters”. They would have led the coup cyber criminals close to the Beijing government. But in digital crimes – the so-called hybrid warfare – evidence of crime is very rare.

Al The Ministry of the Interior notices the data theft just as judicial cooperation between Rome and Beijing is tightening. Minister Piantedosi had already prepared the ground for 2024 by meeting his counterpart in the Chinese capital Wang Xiaohong. The power of attorney of Pratowhich investigates Chinese crime, continued its work by naming the first response the Dragon to an Italian rogatory letter. On November 25th a meeting takes place in the offices of the Tuscan judiciary: the prosecutor Luca Tescaroli meets a delegation led by the assistant to the Minister of Public Security Zhongyi Liu. But during the talks in Prato, the suspicion arises in Rome that the Chinese know too much, and alarm rises over the abusive intrusion into the Interior Ministry’s data. But the Chinese authorities did not provide explanations to the Italian security forces. Result: the Prato meeting is interrupted, the Republic is rebuilt, together with judicial cooperation between Rome and Beijing.