Three former Telecom Italia employees have been accused of corporate espionage targeted at Spanish giant Telefonica, Mexico's Telmex and its Brazil unit Embratel, Brazilian press reported, citing Italian weekly L'Espresso.
The employees were arrested on November 5 and accused of spying on the "enemy" after forming a team referred to as the Tiger Team. The team is thought to have started the espionage in 2005 when Telefonica began talks with Telecom about possible acquisitions or alliances, according to the reports.
The Telecom employees implicated are former Brasil Telecom chief of security Angelo Iannone, and IT technicians Roberto Rangoni and Alfredo Melloni, according to the reports.
The reports say that the accused accessed confidential information about TEF and TMX subsidiaries in Europe and Latin America. Among the subsidiaries that were hacked are Vodafone, Embratel, Telemar and Vivo. (more)
