Fast Facts

• Italy’s Postal Police now treat cyber infrastructure as critical to national security, alongside traditional borders.
• Integration of law enforcement, intelligence, and defense is essential to tackle evolving digital threats.
• New European rules (E-evidence) speed up access to cross-border digital evidence in criminal investigations.
• Italy has launched advanced training programs to recruit and prepare a new class of cyber professionals.

From Guarding Gates to Securing Cables: A New Security Landscape

Imagine a border that isn’t drawn in the sand or marked by fences, but woven from fiber optic cables stretching beneath oceans and satellites orbiting far above. This is the new frontier that Ivano Gabrielli, Director of Italy’s Postal Police and Cybersecurity Service, describes-a world where public safety is as much about digital resilience as it is about boots on the ground.

In a recent interview at the Space&Underwater conference in Rome, Gabrielli explained how the classic roles of police, intelligence, and military defense are merging. “Twenty years ago, cyber protection was just a law enforcement concern,” he reflected. “Now, it’s a fully integrated ecosystem-one that links border defense, intelligence, and strategic resilience.”

Why Everyone’s Talking About E-evidence

One of the most significant changes sweeping Europe is the E-evidence regulation. For years, cross-border investigations were bogged down by slow legal processes, with digital evidence scattered across companies and countries. E-evidence changes the game: police and prosecutors can now demand data directly from tech companies operating in Europe, making it much easier to track cybercriminals who hide behind international borders.

This regulatory leap means a cyberattack in Milan or a ransomware scheme targeting Rome can be investigated with speed-no more waiting months for data from a server in Dublin or Frankfurt. It’s a crucial step for Italy and the EU, where digital threats increasingly ignore national boundaries.

Lessons from the Past, Eyes on the Future

The evolution isn’t just legal or technical. Italy’s approach to cyber defense is also about people. The Postal Police have started recruiting young talent through interviews rather than old-fashioned written exams, seeking out real skills over rote learning. Once selected, these recruits undergo rigorous training, often in partnership with private sector experts who bring the latest global best practices.

This public-private fusion is vital. Past attacks-like the 2021 ransomware assault on Italy’s Lazio region health system or the infamous NotPetya outbreak that crippled companies worldwide-have shown that cybercriminals don’t care about sector boundaries. Only a united front can hold the line.

As Gabrielli notes, “Protecting these assets means protecting our democracies.” In the digital age, a country’s sovereignty depends not just on its territory, but on the security of its data, its networks, and its people’s trust in the systems that underpin daily life.

WIKICROOK

• Critical Infrastructure: Critical infrastructure includes key systems-like power, water, and healthcare-whose failure would seriously disrupt society or the economy.
• Resilience: Resilience in cybersecurity is the ability to quickly recover and adapt after cyberattacks, ensuring business continuity and stronger future defenses.
• E: E-commerce sites are online marketplaces where goods or services are bought and sold globally, connecting buyers and sellers for legal or illegal transactions.
• Public: In cybersecurity, 'public' describes data or resources open to everyone, lacking access restrictions and often more vulnerable to threats.
• Ransomware: Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts or locks data, demanding payment from victims to restore access to their files or systems.