ITALY Trends and Developments Contributed by: Giuseppe Fornari, Enrico Di Fiorino, Emanuele Angiuli and Lorena Morrone, Fornari e Associati Studio Legale
Fornari e Associati Studio Legale Milano – Via Chiossetto 18 – 20122 Roma – Piazza Adriana 5 – 00193 Bari – Via Principe Amedeo 25 – 70121 Italy Tel: +39 025 412 2206
Email: info@fornarieassociati.com Web: www.fornarieassociati.com
Overview The technological revolution that the world has expe - rienced over the past 50 years has had a disruptive impact on all areas of society, particularly since these new technologies are not necessarily always used for legitimate purposes. Indeed, it is an established fact that crimes are increasingly committed using IT tools. Cybernetic devices can very easily make an individual both the victim and perpetrator of an unlawful act, with a whole series of consequences in terms of pre - vention, detection and prosecution of crimes. Considering that the Italian Criminal Code was pub - lished in 1930, for instance, it is easy to understand how important it is for the legislature and the interpret - ers of the law to make a continuous effort to keep legal matters up to date. The advent of cyberspace as a place of immediate interaction, even between peo - ple thousands of kilometres away from each other, has made it necessary to question both what innovative types of crime could come to characterise criminal law and which “classic” crimes can find new forms of commission through the use of the latest generation of technological means. Today, more than ever, companies find themselves engaged in the dual task of protecting themselves from the risk of cyber-attacks and preventing the commission of criminal offences made possible by the use of these tools. On the one hand, companies could see their internal security undermined, while, on the other, they could face administrative liability aris - ing from a crime (pursuant to Legislative Decree No 231/2001). Both scenarios could have serious impacts on business.
In 2024, the average cost of data breach reached an all-time high of USD4.88 million, marking 10% increase compared to USD4.45 million in 2023, and reflecting a broader upward trend of 15.3% growth between 2020 and 2023. In Italy, according to the Clusit Report 2024, 30% of large companies estimate that the financial damage caused by cyber-threats amounts to at least USD50,000. However, more recent findings point to a reduction in the average cost of data breaches in the country, highlighting a positive shift largely driven by the increasing maturity of internal breach detection and response practices. Still, even if the use of AI-powered security tools pro - vided significant cost reduction for entities that adopt - ed them, recent research published by Accenture in the “State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025” shows that only a minority of organisations have developed a truly mature cybersecurity framework (34%), and an even smaller group is equipped to address AI-pow - ered threats effectively (13%). Although many organi - sations acknowledge AI’s growing impact on cyber- risk, far fewer have introduced structured processes to assess the security of AI tools before deployment. Cybercrime When talking about cybercrimes, a distinction needs to be made. Cybercrimes in the strict sense are char - acterised, in terms of the specificity of the law, by the presence of elements of data or information automa - tion, which constitute the essential core of the criminal offence. However, cybercrimes in the broader sense are nothing more than common crimes committed using computer tools.
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