Think The Italian Job, but instead of gold bars, it’s confidential data from some of Italy’s most powerful figures reported the POLITICO from Rome and brussels.
From a modest office behind Milan’s iconic Duomo, 44-year-old IT consultant Nunzio Samuele Calamucci orchestrated an audacious, years-long infiltration of a national security database, according to explosive allegations from Italian prosecutors detailed in a 518-page judicial dossier reviewed by POLITICO. By night, as server traffic dwindled, Calamucci’s team allegedly siphoned off troves of sensitive data belonging to thousands of Italians, including President Sergio Mattarella and former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.
The breach has escalated into a full-blown national scandal, shaking the political elite and prompting urgent calls for a parliamentary investigation and an overhaul of the country’s cybersecurity protocols.
“I’m bitter and hurt for myself and my family,” Renzi, leader of the centrist Italia Viva party, said. “But as an Italian, I’m angry. This is a direct attack on democracy and privacy.”
As of Tuesday morning, four individuals had been arrested, with 60 others under investigation. On Thursday, a judge will examine the charges, which include conspiracy to hack, corruption, illegal data access, and breaching state secrets.
The operation was allegedly masterminded by a private investigations firm, Equalize, led by former top police officer Carmine Gallo and operating under the auspices of Enrico Pazzali, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano. Prosecutors say Equalize deployed a computer virus to infiltrate government servers and leveraged insider connections to maintain control. They allegedly targeted databases tracking suspicious financial activity, private bank transactions, and police investigations. In wiretaps, Calamucci reportedly bragged about hacking the personal information of 800,000 individuals. The stolen data was either sold to clients or used to blackmail politicians and business leaders, netting the group more than €3.1 million in illicit profits between 2019 and March 2024.
Among those under house arrest are Gallo, Calamucci, private investigator Massimiliano Camponovo, and Giulio Cornelli, owner of a tech and security firm.
Nunzio Samuele Calamucci, 44, hails from Bollate, a town near Milan. Known by his codename “Sem,” he is alleged to have been a member of the Anonymous hacker collective. For Equalize, he reportedly “coordinated and directed all criminal operations.”
In 2015, Calamucci founded Edil CNS, a sole proprietorship focused on masonry work. But bricks and mortar weren’t his true calling. A tech enthusiast, he thrived in the digital realm of servers, computers, and cloud systems.
In 2019, he teamed up with his friend Massimiliano Camponovo to launch Mercury Advisor, a security consultancy firm based at Piazza della Resistenza 11 in Bollate. However, the only active contracts there were for electricity and high-speed internet. When law enforcement inspected the premises, they discovered a storage room filled with servers and computers. Financial records revealed rapid growth: the company’s revenue leapt from €43,164 in 2019 to €279,237 during the pandemic in 2020, and climbed further to €335,506 in 2021.
Despite Mercury Advisor’s official address, its real operations were conducted from offices at Via Pattari 6, where they shared space with Equalize, the company run by Enrico Pazzali, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano, and Carmine Gallo, a former senior police officer. Effectively, Calamucci and Camponovo became an integral part of the operations led by Pazzali and Gallo.
Calamucci’s absence from social media is notable but not surprising, given his technical prowess. He quickly became a key player in the complex network of private security firms, legal service providers, and IT specialists working for intelligence agencies.
Within Equalize, he was nicknamed “The Professor” and trained young operatives who formed the company’s operational core. He was also the creator of Beyond, a powerful database used by Equalize’s wealthy clients to spy on business associates and rivals. Most notably, prosecutors accuse him of being the architect behind the alleged breach of a police database via a backdoor.
“Sem” is said to have ties to the international hacker group Anonymous, infamous for breaching systems like the Pentagon’s. In Italy, his alleged targets included Equitalia, Trenitalia, Enel, the Carabinieri, the Postal Police, and the Rome Tribunal. In 2013, the group infiltrated the Interior Ministry, extracting highly classified documents. Calamucci bragged:
“With them, around 3,000 people, we share intel when something interesting comes up… Someone finds 30 hacked accounts—who’s interested? Phone records? Which provider do you want—Vodafone, TIM, or something else? With SMS, all that kind of stuff.”
Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned the breach as “unacceptable” and “criminal.” “Spying on private lives for financial or political gain is a direct threat to democracy,” he said.
Ignazio La Russa, Senate President and a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right Brothers of Italy party, was also a victim. He expressed outrage on X (formerly Twitter), stating he was “shocked and disgusted” that both he and his sons had been targeted.
The political fallout has been swift. Opposition leaders are demanding answers, calling on Meloni to address Parliament about the breach, which reportedly originated within the Interior Ministry, custodian of highly sensitive national data.
“We need to know if elements of the state apparatus were complicit,” said Francesco Boccia and Chiara Braga of the Democratic Party in a joint statement.
According to wiretaps, Calamucci, who previously boasted of hacking the Pentagon as part of the Anonymous collective, led a team of young engineers tasked with building and maintaining databases for the Interior Ministry. In response, the Brothers of Italy party has called for tougher legislation and harsher penalties for cybercrimes.
Italy’s data protection authority has launched its own task force to review the security of national databases. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Tajani has mobilized a team to secure government embassies and his ministry, warning that stolen information could be weaponized by adversaries.
A lawyer for Pazzali stated his client intends to prove he had no involvement in the alleged crimes.
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