Four years ago, I joined the Interior Ministry as an adviser to the minister for cybersecurity.
Once I took over my office, I was given a Huawei branded service phone; I must say that I was dumbfounded and amazed. Knowing the shadows on Chinese telecommunications, I really didn't expect it and immediately asked the system administrator for guidance.
He explained to me with great kindness that the smartphone that had just been delivered to me belonged to a large routine lot, assigned by Consip to cover the many central and peripheral needs of the Ministry of the Interior (central directorates, prefects and prefectures).
My smartphone (like many others) was the result of a selective procedure typical of Consip tenders - consolidated for some time - which were not limited to the Interior Ministry, but included the procurement of many other ministries to meet the growing need for equipment telephones, routers, video surveillance equipment and technological materials of various kinds.
After this episode, in the following months, I had the task of drafting a report for the minister on the delicate issue of cybersecurity and public safety. In the report, I underlined, among other things, the imperative need for the Ministry of the Interior (and not only) to select more secure devices and technologies in the delicate sector of telecommunications and digital technologies.
In my opinion, it was absolutely necessary to overcome the Consip approach based exclusively on price criteria, at least for the ministries of the Csir.
I found a widespread consensus that we could not and should not ignore concerns about Chinese technologies on which prestigious academic institutions and intelligence bodies connected to us had for several years turned the spotlight.
Based on my note at the beginning of 2018, the Viminale started an internal reflection, with the Public Safety Department in primis, but also involving the other general directorates.
Once my mandate ended in early June 2018, I felt it was my duty to forward my reflections also to the new head of the cabinet of the Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini. I haven't followed the subject since.
I don't know if my suggestions have been accepted. Certainly the inclusion of the telecommunications sector in the memorandum of understanding between Italy and China on the Silk Road was not a reassuring element; let's hope that Italy is not yet paying the consequences.
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