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MILAN (Reuters) - Computers hacked at Italian defence group Leonardo between 2015 and 2017 belonged to a unit that makes components for both commercial and military aircraft, including C27J and ATR turboprop, a police officer working on the case told Reuters.
The officer, who asked not to be identified by name, said police were now looking into the hard disks and laptops seized from one of the people arrested to check what kind of information was stolen and why.
“The data could have been stolen simply to show off hacking skills or to sell information,” the officer said. “Both hypotheses are on the table.”
On Dec. 5 Italian police arrested two people who had worked at Leonardo over their alleged role in hacking 94 computers, 33 of which were at the group’s plant in Pomigliano d’Arco, near Naples.
One of the two people under arrest is Arturo D’Elia, who at the time of the hacking was part of the Leonardo team handling cybersecurity incidents.
In a statement issued on Dec. 5, prosecutors said that 10 gigabyte of data exfiltrated from computers at the Pomigliano plant contained information relating to “accounting management, human resources... and the design of components for civil and military aircraft”.
“The stolen data could be valuable both in terms of industrial copyright and security,” they added.
