About a month ago, an unidentified cybercriminal (but known on the net as 'Dre*d') distributed sensitive data from the Guardia di Finanza free of charge and exposed it to everyone in a data leaks forum known as RaidForums.
An entire archive containing material dating back to the Guardia di Finanza (presumably the Nucleo Anti Fradi Tecnologiche in Rome and the Public Prosecutor's Office in Brescia), relating to investigations that were carried out in 2019 against a large illicit Dark Web e-commerce company called Berlusconi Market.
Investigations concluded with the arrest of the two perpetrators who used the names of politicians Vladimir Putin and Emmanuel Macron as nicknames.
Inside the hacked archive, confidential communications between the GdF unit and the Brescia Prosecutor's Office can be verified. Confidential reports of absolutely non-disclosable investigative tools: names, surnames, in-depth personal data, addresses, documents (true and false), of all the components of the investigation.
In addition to the results of environmental, telephone and video surveillance interceptions. Finally, also the details of the blockchain transactions with which the abusive market lived.
In short, definitely a lot of working material, useful to the investigation but also to other similar investigations, which leaks techniques used, which if disclosed could be a serious problem of public safety (online or offline).
Our Public Administration is constantly under threat on this front and, apparently, data mismanagement is rooted even in the places that should be the most secure.
The attention, therefore, of a professional Cyber Security Agency must start from the basics, from the rules of access to data: who can access, what and why; from the rules on what can or cannot be done from a certain location and how much that location can (and must) be accessed from outside or not.
Fundamental foundations that are also lacking in most small and medium-sized enterprises, which thus expose themselves to numerous cyber attacks and the ensuing economic and image damage (in addition to penalties from the legislator if data have not been well protected).
The risk for your company is both to lose important data and to receive financial and reputational damage and fines from the authorities. That is why it is important to protect yourself and insure yourself against cybercriminals when it is not yet too late, before you receive an attack.
