ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images
A $40 million yacht that sank off the coast of Italy may hold highly classified intelligence locked in watertight safes — prompting fears that countries like Russia and China may try to steal it.
The concerns led prosecutors investigating last month’s deadly capsizing of the Bayesian to safeguard the sunken sailboat with guards above water and underwater surveillance cameras, CNN reported Saturday.
“A formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreckage until it can be raised,” an official involved in the probe told the network.
The 184-foot luxury vessel sank near the island of Sicily during an Aug. 19 storm, killing seven of the 22 people on board.
The dead included British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who founded the Darktrace cybersecurity company and reportedly had ties to intelligence services in Britain, the U.S. and other countries.
His widow, Angela Bacares, owns the ship through her Revtom Ltd. company and is among those who were rescued.
Some of the survivors told authorities that Lynch “did not trust cloud services” and always kept hard drives stored in a secure compartment of the yacht wherever he sailed, CNN said, citing a source in the local prosecutor’s office.
Authorities suspect the ship holds two super-encrypted hard drives with highly classified information, including passwords and other sensitive data, an official involved in the salvage plans told CNN.
Specially trained divers have used remote cameras to search the shipwreck, CNN reported, but chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio has said no personal property has been recovered.
Divers are expected to complete a survey of the wreck this week and offer suggestions for raising the ship without spilling any of its nearly 4,800 gallons of oil and fuel while also protecting any classified information on board.
