Cybersecurity, for the crime of cyber extortion penalties of up to 12 years

The cybersecurity bill strongly pushed by the Prime Minister's Office and Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano is on its way to final approval. Yesterday, the Senate's Constitutional Affairs and Justice Committees approved the text in the version approved by the Chamber of Deputies, which at this point will be the final one, although the Chamber's go-ahead could be postponed until next week.

We agree on the need for a bipartisan legislative intervention on the issue,' Bazoli explains, 'but there is a lack of resources, some things could have been done better, and there are quite a few critical aspects in the text. 'You cannot make a measure like this,' warns Bazoli, 'that aggravates public administrations without having the resources to do so. The part on criminal sanctions has been done well, but there is a part on defence against cyber attacks that has not been resolved'.

In detail, the measure introduces heavier penalties, provides for longer investigations, establishes easier wiretapping, outlines new offences and redesigns the institutional architecture. In terms of constraints for public administrations, the draft law imposes the obligation to equip themselves with dedicated structures and a contact person on a long list of subjects that includes, among others, metropolitan cities, municipalities with more than 100,000 inhabitants, their public transport companies, local health authorities, and in-house companies.

There is a long list of amendments to the Criminal Code, first and foremost strengthening the more classic offences, following the Striano case (the Guardia di Finanza officer involved in a very long series of accesses to public databases without apparent justification or investigative urgency). Also new is the introduction of the offence of computer extortion, with a high penalty ranging from a minimum of six years to a maximum of 12 years, as well as the provision of an aggravating circumstance for the offence of fraud when the offence is committed remotely through computer or telematic tools, so as to prevent the identification of the perpetrator, but with prosecution on complaint.

On the other hand, with regard to amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure, the draft law includes major computer crimes in the catalogue of those for which the duration of preliminary investigations is set at the broader limit of two years. It also extends the rules on wiretapping provided for organised crime offences, with different prerequisites from the ordinary ones (when there are sufficient indications of an offence, instead of serious indications, when wiretapping is necessary for the carrying out of the investigation, instead of absolutely indispensable) to computer crimes referred to the coordination of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor (these are a total of six offences considered particularly serious).