(ANSA) - Rome, January 10 - Italian police said Tuesday that they have smashed a cyber-espionage ring that for years collected sensitive data on politicians, public institutions and administrations, professional studios and top entrepreneurs. The investigation, conducted by the postal police, led to the arrest of two people - nuclear engineer Giulio Occhionero and his sister Francesca Maria. The arrested pair are residents of London but are domiciled in Rome and are well known in the world of high finance, sources said. Ex-premiers Matteo Renzi and Mario Monti and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi are among the top figures allegedly spied on by the pair, sources said on Tuesday. The siblings allegedly stored the sensitive data on servers seized in the United States by the FBI, the sources said. They allegedly had a database containing 18,327 usernames, 1,793 of them accompanied by a password, and divided into 122 categories tagged 'Nick' indicating the target category (politics, business, etc.) or their initials, police said Tuesday. Renzi's email was allegedly violated in June 2016.

Computers linked to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, were infected too.

Giulio Occhionero was the venerable master of the Paolo Ungari Masonic lodge.

Investigators believe that the espionage was not an isolated initiative by the arrested pair, saying they have found links to the so-called P4 power-seeking cliche and to wheeler-dealer Luigi Bisignani.

