The profile of the person who allegedly ‘hacked’ the mobile phone of the public prosecutor who insulted Meloni points to a single suspect

 Public prosecutor Alessandro Di Cicco has lodged a formal complaint, allegedly for unauthorised access to a computer system (an offence punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment), regarding a post critical of the Prime Minister that appeared on his Facebook profile: “The little woman from the suburbs doesn’t have time to sign a decree. An ad acta commissioner will take care of it! Poor Italy,” it read. The reference was to Giorgia Meloni’s refusal to sign a Prime Ministerial Decree (Dpcm) costing around one billion euros – as correctly reported by Il Sole 24 Ore – to increase magistrates’ salaries in accordance with two rulings by the Council of State. The magistrate, who works at the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, interviewed by Corriere della Sera, added some details about the incident described in the complaint: “I was having dinner with friends and had left my phone in the car. When I went to fetch it, I found several notifications. At that point, I deleted the post. I didn’t write it,” said the deputy public prosecutor, “I was travelling and when I realised what had happened – namely that someone had posted on my profile – I removed it straight away.”

The complaint is expected to be submitted shortly to the Perugia Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has territorial jurisdiction over magistrates in Rome. 

It is therefore possible, based on the statements made by Public Prosecutor Di Cicco, to piece together the scenario that his colleague, the Public Prosecutor in Perugia, will have to investigate. The fact that Di Cicco’s phone was left locked in his car rules out the possibility that someone physically used his smartphone in his place. A similar incident occurred involving an auditor, Tommaso Miele, who was at the time President of the Court of Auditors of Lazio: his Twitter profile was full of insults directed at the then Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and, after Il Foglio reported the story (thereby scuppering his imminent appointment as President of the Court of Auditors), Mr Miele justified himself by saying: “It wasn’t a hacker. I always left my iPad lying about and someone used my account to attack Renzi. I’ve always held him in high regard.”

If Di Cicco had taken his phone with him to the table, one might have assumed it was a prank by a friend or colleague whilst the prosecutor had left his smartphone unattended, perhaps to go to the loo. But that was not the case. The phone was in the car. Nor did the prosecutor report any signs of forced entry on his car that might suggest a thief had momentarily taken hold of Di Cicco’s phone, just long enough to write a post against Giorgia Meloni before putting it back where it belonged. None of that happened.

The intrusion was inevitably a cyber attack. So this is how it must have happened. A highly skilled hacker, capable of uncovering the magistrate’s password on the dark web, gained access to his Facebook account and wrote that post. The profile does not belong to a typical hacker. He did not use the public prosecutor’s account – as is usually the case in such situations – to ask his contacts for money (“My wallet’s been stolen, I’m stranded abroad with no money, message me privately to help me get back…”). Nor did they use the theft of the prosecutor’s digital identity to blackmail him: “Send me half a bitcoin, or I’ll publish your personal details and private communications”. None of that.

This is an unusual hacker. This is someone who is aware of the Council of State’s rulings on magistrates’ salaries, well-informed about the Italian political debate to the extent of knowing that the Prime Minister is refusing to sign the Prime Ministerial Decree to implement the measure, but also an expert in administrative law to the extent of knowing that the Prime Minister’s refusal would in any case result in the intervention of an ‘ad acta commissioner’. What’s more, after gaining access to Public Prosecutor Di Cicco’s account and drafting the incriminating post, this hacker logged out without changing the password, thereby leaving the alleged victim free to delete the post once his dinner with friends was over.

There is no clear motive. The profile of the person sought is that of a legal expert. The only digital traces appear to be Di Cicco’s fingerprints on his mobile phone. The circle of suspects is narrowed down to a very small number of people – practically just one. If the Perugia public prosecutor assigned to the case proves reluctant to believe the incredible account contained in the complaint filed by his colleague Di Cicco, there is a risk that the investigation will shift from Article 615-ter of the Criminal Code (‘Unauthorised access to a computer or telecommunications system’) to an investigation under Article 367: simulation of a criminal offence.