A brother-sister hacker team, Giulio Occhionero, 45, and Francesca Maria Occhionero, 48, who preyed on the financial world, were arrested and are facing extradition to Italy.

The team is suspected of disseminating malware that resulted in the hacking of email accounts of two former prime ministers, Vatican cardinals and the president of the European Central Bank.

The charges that they will face include obtaining of information concerning state security, illegal access to computer systems, and illegal interception of computer communications.

Giulio has a degree in nuclear engineering and is thought to be the creator of the malware dubbed "Eye Pyramid" that infected an estimated 18,000 email accounts. His targets included bankers, executives and politicians with particular interest in the former prime minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi as well as Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister.

The pair were working at an investment company and used the stolen email accounts to try to make illegal investments.

“We have evidence that the spying activity was going on since 2010 and possibly several years before that,” said Roberto Di Legami. “They attempted to infiltrate tens of thousands of accounts. The investigation has just started and there are thousands of encrypted files which we need to try to open.”

In spite of using the Tor network to hide their hacking, the FBI found their data on servers in the U.S. They were subsequently arrested and will be extradited to Italy in the near future.

Source: SCMagazine