MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Italian teenager toys with Mediterranean merchant ship traffic just for fun

Despite the legal consequences he may now face, the Italian teenager is likely to end up hired by a cybersecurity company

A 15-year-old lad from Cesena, Italy, toyed with merchant ship routes in the Mediterranean after accessing the navigation systems just for fun. Although no material damage was reported, a criminal case has been opened against the teenager, whose parents claimed to be unaware of those activities.

The high school student of a technological institute also broke into the Education Ministry's system and turned failing grades into passing ones, in addition to erasing some tuition debts plus other tests belonging to some of his schoolmates. His PC and other devices have now been seized by the authorities as the matter is being handled by Bologna's Prosecution division in charge of cybercrimes.
After a complaint was filed, Italian Postal Police tracked the infiltration to the boy in Cesena where someone was found to be “dabbling in a kind of electronic game, virtual on the screen but terribly concrete in reality.”
These actions now in the hands of Bologna's juvenile prosecutor's office caused a stir among cybersecurity experts and maritime authorities who will now reassess how trustworthy their automated ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems) are if anyone can mess with them. The mechanism combines digital maps and GPS coordinates to lay out vessel routes.
Although the teenager faces certain judiciary consequences, analysts believe that in all likelihood he will end up retained by a major cybersecurity company to prevent others with different intentions from altering destination coordinates.
In addition, the Italian Education Ministry claimed that their systems had never been broken into and that the teenager's actions probably involved a private record managed by a company hired by his high school.