On February 16th, draft parliamentary bill no. 1717 containing provisions to bolster national cybersecurity and cybercrimes was presented to the Chamber of Deputies. The legislative process continued on February 29th with further steps.
The law against the pressure of the cyber threat in Italy
The measure aims to respond to the increasing offensiveness of attacks carried out by telematic and cyber means and the consequent need to enhance cybersecurity. It operates on two fronts: national cybersecurity – by enhancing the protection and response capabilities of public administrations against cyber threats – and criminal law – through the revision of cybercrimes with the intention of better preventing and countering them.
The new offence of cyber extortion
The new offence of cyber extortion aims to protect the growing number of victims of this serious and frequent aggression: blackmail carried out through the threat or implementation of cyberattacks. The new provision is punishable by imprisonment from six to twelve years and a fine ranging from five thousand to ten thousand euros. The provision is also included in the catalog of offenses related to cybercrimes concerning corporate criminal liability, with the provision of a pecuniary sanction ranging from three hundred to eight hundred units.
Penalty changes to computer crimes
Interventions on existing cybercrimes mainly concern the tightening of sanctions – also in the area of the corporate criminal liability – through the increase of statutory penalties and the introduction of the prohibition of balancing mitigating and aggravating circumstances. There is also the novelty of using threat as an aggravating circumstance for offenses such as unauthorized access to a computer system and damaging public or public-interest information, data and programs, thereby expanding the aggravating circumstance which hitherto only contemplated the use of violence. Additionally, there is the provision of an aggravating circumstance integrated with the realization of certain events resulting from the offense, particularly involving the removal, reproduction, transmission, or inaccessibility to the data, information, or programs contained in the computer system.
To mitigate this framework, we may note the inclusion of the mitigating circumstance of minor gravity of the act and the mitigating circumstance of cooperation in favor of the individual aiding the authorities in the gathering of evidence or recovery of proceeds or instruments used in the commission of these offences, and striving to prevent further criminal activity, is incorporated.
News about the investigation
On the investigation side, there are numerous interventions, with only a few being mentioned.
Wiretapping
In order to allow more effective and timely action aimed at ascertaining the most serious cybercrimes, the scope of wiretapping regulations provided for organized crime offenses has been extended to include cybercrime cases, establishing the possibility of ordering wiretapping operations for 40 days, extendable by an additional 20 days in the presence of mere sufficient evidence of the commission of the offenses.
Collaboration
As a development of the exacerbation of punitive treatment for cybercrimes and the strengthening of investigative tools for their counteraction, the extension of the discipline of justice collaborators and justice witnesses to the authors of cybercrimes thus far seen who require special protection measures and prison benefits provided for by cooperation regulations due to the serious danger posed by the collaboration, is envisaged.
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