The sunken superyacht of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died in a shipwreck off the coast of Sicily in August, is believed to contain sensitive intelligence data that could draw interest from the Chinese and Russian governments.
Italian divers surveying the wreckage of the USD 40 million yacht, called the Bayesian, have requested heightened security to protect the site, according to a report by CNN. Prosecutors investigating the fatal accident are concerned the vessel may contain data tied to Western intelligence services.
‘Classified information’
The 56-meter yacht, which sank in a violent storm, is thought to have watertight safes containing two super-encrypted hard drives that hold highly classified information, including passcodes and other sensitive data, CNN reported, citing multiple sources. Specialist divers with remotely operated cameras have extensively searched the boat lying on the seabed at a depth of 50 meters.
Lynch, whose wife’s company owned the yacht, had ties to British, US and other spy agencies through his various companies, including cybersecurity firm Darktrace. He was also an adviser to former British prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May on science, technology and cybersecurity. According to US media reports, local authorities are concerned the wreckage, expected to be raised in the coming weeks as part of the criminal probe, will be of interest to foreign governments, including Russia and China.
A formal request for additional security of the wreckage has been implemented until it can be raised. The tragedy claimed the lives of seven people, including Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and other passengers. Preliminary autopsy results suggest some died of suffocation or “dry drowning” when the oxygen in an air bubble in a sleeping cabin ran out.
‘Did not trust cloud services’
Survivors told prosecutors that Lynch “did not trust cloud services” and always kept data drives in a secure compartment of the yacht. The cruise was reportedly a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal in a US criminal fraud case in June, though Hewlett Packard is still pursuing a USD 4 billion civil payout from his estate. Lynch’s business partner Stephen Chamberlain, who was his co-defendant in the US fraud case, died on the same day the yacht sank after being hit by a car while jogging.
Chamberlain’s lawyer said he was in a coma and unaware of the shipwreck. No personal effects or hard drives have been recovered from the vessel so far. However, the onboard hard drives and surveillance cameras tied to the yacht’s navigation system have been brought to investigators to determine if there is any usable data that might indicate how the yacht sank within 16 minutes of the storm hitting.
After divers complete surveys of the wreck, they will make suggestions for how to best raise the 473-ton vessel without spilling any of the 18,000 liters of oil and fuel still onboard, and how to ensure any sensitive data does not fall into the wrong hands. The costs of raising the ship will fall to Lynch’s widow, as mandated by Italian maritime law. As the probe into the sinking of the Bayesian continues, heightened security measures are in place to protect the potentially sensitive intelligence data onboard.
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