Italy prosecutors suspect 1.2 million phone customers hit by data abuse

ROME: Italian police have put 13 people under house arrest, including some employees at Telecom Italia’s (TIM), after alleged data abuses in which Rome prosecutors suspect personal data of around 1.2 million customers was stolen.

Postal police said the data of the customers of various phone companies, jointly held in TIM’s data facilities, was sold to outbound call centres which subsequently used them for commercial purposes.

The investigation started in February following a complaint by TIM, which had discovered multiple unauthorised database accesses over the previous months.