The cyber-crime division of the Italian police, CNAIPIC, has been hacked, and 8GB of data has been taken, according to a tweet posted by the Anonymous IRC Twitter account. The hack was made as part of the AntiSec initiative that has been heavily promoted by Anonymous's AnonOps faction and its Lulz Security spin-off.

Describing the attacks in a Patsebin post, the hackers claim to have broken into a CNAIPIC evidence server, used to store evidence gathered during its investigations. Many documents were taken, including some with information about both private companies such as Gazprom and Exxon Mobil, and government bodies, including the US Department of Agriculture, and the Australian Ministry of Defense.

The person or persons behind the hack has promised to release the files shortly. In the meantime, it published a picture of the data, showing all the filenames, details of the CNAIPIC management structure, pictures of CNAIPIC staff, and a small selection of documents to give a taste of what's to follow. The hackers are claiming that CNAIPIC uses the information it gathers as evidence to assist Italy's spying on foreign nations, and not to assist the investigation of cyber-criminals and ensure their successful prosecution.

Earlier this month, CNAIPIC performed a number of raids and made three arrests while investigating denial-of-service attacks made against both government and private Web servers by Anonymous. Members of the group were quick to promise revenge for these arrests. However, the perpetrators of this new hack did not appear to link it to those arrests or raids.