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Intesa Sanpaolo has issued a public apology after more than 6,000 accounts including those of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU commissioner-designate Raffaele Fitto were illegally accessed by a “disloyal employee” of Italy’s largest bank.
The lender said on Sunday night that after its internal control system identified the individual, it had notified data protection authorities, dismissed the employee and filed a complaint as an injured party.
“We are deeply sorry for what has occurred and we apologise,” the bank said in the statement. “This must never happen again.”
The data breach scandal has placed Intesa’s controls systems in the spotlight, with some rightwing lawmakers suggesting that foreign powers were seeking to destabilise the government.
Meloni told Mediaset television at the weekend that she thought the rogue employee was passing the information to a third party.
“Who are they selling it to? This is the answer we are waiting for, presumably there are interests behind this,” the prime minister said.
Tommaso Foti, a senior member of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy ruling party, told Italian conservative daily La Verità that “this is not the doing of a random looky-loo . . . this is the largest scandal in the history of our republic”.
The former Intesa branch employee, who was sacked in August, is being investigated by prosecutors in the southern city of Bari, close to where he was based.
He illegally accessed the bank accounts of politicians, sports personalities, entrepreneurs, VIPs and private citizens between February 2022 and April this year, according to people with knowledge of the investigation.
Other personalities targeted in the data breach include former prime ministers Mario Draghi, Enrico Letta and Matteo Renzi, defence minister Guido Crosetto, former Juventus chair Andrea Agnelli and members of the Berlusconi family.
Intesa said in its statement that “there was no cyber security issue”.
People close to the lender said it would appoint Antonio De Vita, a retired general of the Carabinieri police force, to oversee its cyber security services.
Italian daily Domani revealed the scandal last week, reporting that police had seized the former employee’s laptop, tablet and mobile phone as investigators seek to understand whether the account breaches had been ordered by a third party.
The lender’s share price has not been affected by the news.