In a scenario in which the continuous technological evolution influences every action of our daily life, the effort of the Postal Police and Communications in the year 2017 has been constantly directed to the prevention and the fight against computer crime in general, with particular reference to the crimes that , even in the face of the Directive of the Minister of the Interior of 15 August 2017, are of the primary competence of this specialty.
In the framework of online child pornography, 55 arrests and 595 complaints were carried out; among the most significant operations, coordinated by the Postal and Communications Police Service, we report the Operation Sweep Web of the Postal Police and Communications Department of Florence which led to the execution of 45 searches and 3 arrests for child pornography Operation Black Shadow, conducted by the Postal Police and Communications Department of Trento, in which 37 searches were carried out and 10 arrested for detention and dissemination of child pornography material.
From the complex operations of prevention, a constant monitoring activity of the network arose that involved 28560 internet sites, of which 2077 included in blacklist.
The relevance of online solicitation phenomenon is confirmed, which registered 437 treated cases that led to the reporting of 158 subjects and the arrest of 19.
In this regard, significant was the activity called Bad Queen conducted by the Postal Police Division of Trieste which led to the referral to the AG of 7 subjects.
Not to mention the investigations initiated as a result of the parents' reports such as the operation "12 Apostoli" of the Postal Police Department of Catania, which arrested 4 people constituting a criminal association aimed at aggravated sexual violence against children.
The collaboration with international organizations is particularly important: about 176 ReportNCMEC have been elaborated from which important investigative activities have arisen.
A significant increase, compared to the 2016, is recognizable in the area of computer crimes against the person (eg defamation, cyberstalking, illegal processing of personal data, substitution in person) for which 917 people were reported and arrested 8.
The increase in the cyber threat carried out by the National Anti-Crime Center for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures (CNAIPIC) is clearly evident, attested by the significant increase in the number of alerts sent to national critical infrastructures which, compared to 2016, almost quintupled until you reach 28522.
The timely sharing of the so-called "indicators of compromise" of the IT systems with the suppliers of essential public services has made it possible to strengthen the tools aimed at the protection of IT security, also guaranteed by a constant monitoring activity.
In this context, the Center further managed network monitoring that involved sensitive national centers.
In addition, in particular, the Operations Room of the Center managed:
- 1006 cyber attacks on Internet services relating to institutional sites and critical IT infrastructures of national interest;
- 80 requests for cooperation within the "High Tech Crime Emergency" circuit.
Among the investigative activities carried out, in this context, there are 68 investigations initiated in the 2017 for a total of 33persone reported and the arrest of 2.
Among the most significant activities, the "EyePyramid" operation was reported following which the association composed by the Occhionero brothers, both arrested, was stopped, which was dedicated to the political-institutional and industrial informatic spying and the "Andromeda" operation to then a botnet network was dismantled, a collection of computers infected with computer viruses and used by hackers to perform various crimes all over the world.
With a view to effective operational sharing, the Center continued to sign specific protocols to protect national critical infrastructures: in this regard, 2017 signed new agreements with the Atlantia Group in 7 (with the Aeroporti di Roma, Autostrade companies). for Italy and Telepass), Lottomatica, Piaggio Aerospace, INAIL and A2A, in addition to the renewal of the agreement in place with Enel.
It is also represented that similar forms of collaboration have been initiated by the local offices of the Specialty with sensitive structures of local relevance, both public and private, in order to guarantee a capillary and coordinated IT security system.
With reference to the financial cybercrime, the ever more advanced hacking techniques, through the use of malware inoculated through phishing techniques, greatly expand the attacked subjects, above all in the context of commercial relations. In fact, the purpose of criminal organizations is to interfere in commercial relations between companies by diverting sums to current accounts in the availability of criminals. The BEC (business compromised e-mail) fraud or CEO (Chief Exeutive Officer) fraud is the modern application of the attack technique called "man in the middle". Despite the operational difficulty of blocking and recovering the sums abused, especially because sent to non-European countries (China, Taiwan, Hong Kong), thanks to the versatility of the OF2CEN platform (On-line Fraud Cyber Center and Expert Network) for analysis and contrast In the year 2017, the Advanced has been able to stop the source on a movement of 22.052.527 € well 20.839.576 € and to recover 862.000 € of the residual part related to the already arranged transfers. The platform in question, the result of specific agreements passed through ABI with most of the banking world, allows to intervene in almost real time on the report blocking the sum before it is pulverized in various rivulets of nominees.
In this regard, the recent international operation called "Emma3", coordinated by the Postal Police Service with the collaboration of 21 PaesiEuropei and Europol, aimed at identifying the so-called "money mules", the first recipients of sums coming from computer frauds and campaigns of phishing, which offer their identity for the opening of current accounts and / or credit cards on which the illicitly acquired sums are then credited. The operation in question allowed to identify 37 money mules of which 32 arrested and 5 reported, as well as to block over 150.000 €. The contrast to the "money mules" phenomenon during the year made it possible to recover a total of about € 370.000 and to report 122 individuals and arrest 39.
Another significant activity of the judicial police operation "Criptolocker" conducted by the Postal Police and Communications Department of Catania that led to identify a criminal association of 7 people, 4 of which were arrested, with a base in the Neapolitan, who extorted money from entrepreneurs and professionals throughout Italy blocking all data present within the victims' PCs, encrypting them, or hitting commercial transactions with so-called man in the middle attacks.
In the field of cyberterrorism, the Postal and Communications Police investigators have competed with other police and intelligence agencies to prevent and combat the phenomena of subversion and terrorism, both nationally and internationally, implemented through the use of tools information technology and telematic communication.
In this sense stands out the counter-terrorism operation called "Da'Wa" conducted by the Compartments of Perugia and Milan that led to the arrest of 4 people, three Tunisians and a Moroccan, who proselytized on the web, and allowed to issue three measures expulsion against as many individuals.
In the last year, the media strategy put in place by the terrorist organizations of Islamic religious origin has induced the Specialty to carry out a constant activity of observation and analysis of the contents present in the network, also involving additional territorial structures compared to those identified in the 2016 in order to identify forms of proselytism and early signs of radicalization.
The activity, which is aimed at countering proselytism and preventing radicalization, has led to monitoring around 17000 web spaces and the removal of various contents.
With reference to the web monitoring activity for the fight against terrorism of Islamic origin, it is useful to highlight that most of the illegal contents published on the internet are removed directly by the operators of the main web platforms which, thanks to the request for greater collaboration elaborated in numerous institutional offices in international projects (eg EU Internet Forum) to which this Specialist took part, are ensuring a more incisive action to reduce the external and virtual projection of the Caliphate.
Furthermore, we represent that the Postal and Communications Police Service is a national contact point for the IRU (Internet Referral Unit), an Internet Reference Unit in the Europol area, developed on the basis of the Check the Web project, with the aim of share with other countries intelligence information and to respond to the need to act promptly when presenting dangerous contents that affect our or other countries, sharing news of general interest.
The IRU, in fact, carries out an in-depth analysis of the contents of the network that may be of interest for national security, sharing them with the EU countries and with the other interested countries.
Parallel to the increase in the use of telematic tools, the citizens' security expectations have increased.
The Postal and Communications Police have been engaged for several years in campaigns to raise awareness and prevent risks and dangers related to the use of the Internet, especially for young generations.
Specifically, it should be noted that last 1 ° December 2017, on the occasion of the "Maker Faire-Innovation Fair", started the 5 ° Edition of "Una Vita da Social", a traveling campaign by the Postal and Communications Police, thanks to which to date, over 1 million and 300 thousand students have been met, 147.000 parents, 82.500 teachers for a total of 10.750 Schools and 190 Italian cities.
A dynamic project, innovative and definitely in step with the times, which is approaching the new generations highlighting both the opportunities of the web and the risks of falling into the many traps of predators of the network, creating a real "user manual", aimed at avoiding the rampant phenomenon of cyberbullying and all those forms of distorted use of the network in general and social networks.
Users can access the facebook and twitter page of "Una vita da social", managed directly by the Postal and Communications Police, where appointments, activities, contributions are posted and where young Internet users can "post" directly the their impressions at every appointment.
Great consensus has received the campaign #cuoriconnessi, an initiative that through the projection of a docufilm and the direct testimonies of minors victims of abuse, harassment and violence online, wants to offer a food for thought to start important considerations on the weight of words, their value and on their power, but also on the responsibilities of adults.
Furthermore, during the year, educational meetings were held throughout the national territory, reaching over 250 thousand students and about 2500 school institutes for which a dedicated email was also made available: progettoscuola.poliziapostale@interno.it.
The portal of the Commissioner of PS online has become the specialized reference point for those seeking information, advice, suggestions of a general nature, or want to download forms and submit complaints.
An easy tool that allows the citizen, from home, from the workplace or from any place desired, to enter the portal and take advantage of the same services of reporting, information and collaboration that the Postal and Communications Police daily and uninterruptedly offers users of the web.
Activities of the PS Commissioner online:
16.096 - Requests for information processed
17.424 - Reports received from citizens
8.315 - Complaints submitted by users
To integrate the online platform, also the App of the Commissariat, downloadable for free on your smartphone or tablet, both for iOS and Android, with the following data:
Statistics App
927 - Requests for information processed
404 - Reports received from citizens
11.101 - Download Play Store
6.556 - iOS downloads