Cyber-security in Italy: on legal aspects of the «sismi-telecom» trial

SISMI-Telecom scandal», as it is known in Italy, is illegal phone tapping by some people in charge of security at the Telecom Italia Company. The case became common knowledge in September 2006 because 34 people were indicted and there were 21 provisional arrests among many employees at Telecom Italia, among national police and members of the Carabinieri Corps (paramilitary police of the Italian Armed Forces) and of the Guardia di Finanza (Inland Revenue Police)». In 2010, some journalists revealed what was happening and stated that thousands of people had been secretly put under unauthorised surveillance by Telecom Italia and illegal dossiers had been created. People’s lives were monitored as well as their bank accounts; even the data banks of the Italian Ministry of the Interior were accessed. Ultimately, the SISMI-Telecom trial ended with very mild sentences between settlements and state secrets. Yet, in the information age, the SISMI-Telecom scandal can be considered “dead” only from a procedural point of view. According to the interpretation of some experts on the case, the famous law that has destroyed and ordered the destruction of those dossiers, is a suicide law because those files were all in electronic format, and of course continue to circulate and keep producing poisons.