Vatican City, Jan 13, 2017 / 14:28 pm
Two arrests have been made in a widespread cyber-attack that compromised communications of prominent Italian institutions and individuals, including the Vatican.
Italian police have arrested Giulio Occhionero, 45, and his sister Francesca Maria Occhionero, 49. The siblings, who also work as engineers and have dual residencies in London and Rome, are accused of illegally accessing classified information, and breaching and intercepting information technology systems and data communications.
The attack reportedly hacked as many as 18,000 accounts, including computers used by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi at the Pontifical Council for Culture, computers at a Vatican guest house regularly used by prelates visiting Rome, and thousands of e-mail messages.
Vatican officials have not yet commented on the attack, and it is yet unknown to what extent sensitive Vatican information may have been compromised.