OPERATION ‘EYE PYRAMID’
Cyber-spying on top officials rings security bells in Rome
Operation ‘Eye Pyramid’ reveals hackers targeted Mario Draghi and Matteo Renzi through e-mail accounts at the ECB and the Bank of Italy
Rome — Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank (ECB), and former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi were among the targets of a cyber-spying operation that sought to hack into e-mail accounts at the ECB and the Bank of Italy, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Operation "Eye Pyramid" exposed cyber-spying of institutions, state agencies, professionals, political figures and business people lasting for years, Italian police said on Tuesday. It was not clear, though, what information the suspects obtained in their hacking attacks. Two people were arrested, police said: a nuclear engineer and his sister, both living in Rome and well-known in Roman financial circles. The suspects tried to obtain confidential and sensitive data, especially on banks, at the ECB in Frankfurt and at the Bank of Italy in Rome, according to another person with information. The ECB, Renzi’s Democratic Party and the Bank of Italy declined to comment.
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