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An intelligence community hunt is on, for highly classified information. When the supposedly “unsinkable” $40 million superyacht Bayesian sank off Sicily last month, it killed British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter and some friends. One of those friends was his lawyer. Nobody knew until now that there are concerns “that sensitive data locked in its safes may interest foreign governments.” Salvage divers working the wreck “have asked for heightened security to guard the vessel.”
Classified secrets aboard
Classified information all the spooks would love to get a glimpse of is stashed in Davy Jones’ locker. As soon as the yacht Bayesian went down, in a tornado seemingly made suspiciously just for them, the conspiracy theories started to swirl.
No matter what really happened, everyone who heard the story held the opinion there’s got to be more. Nobody really expected any of the juicy details to ever see the light of day but a few are clawing their way to the surface.
Italian prosecutors instantly “opened up a criminal probe into multiple charges of manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.”
They’re the ones who now think the 184-foot yacht “may contain highly sensitive data tied to a number of western intelligence services.” Four “investigation and salvage operation” people who know about the classified secrets leaked to CNN.
Lynch is often called the British Bill Gates and was reportedly “associated with British, American and other intelligence services through his various companies, including the cyber security company he founded, Darktrace.”
They have reason to believe watertight safes on the vessel contain “two super-encrypted hard drives that hold highly classified information, including passcodes and other sensitive data.”
Lying on the seabed
Just because the sunken yacht lies in 165 feet of water doesn’t mean the classified secrets are secure. Not even in a waterproof safe. One of the officials “involved in the salvage plans, who asked not to be named,” admitted “specialist divers with remote cameras have searched the boat extensively.” Nobody is saying which government they were with.
“In what appears to be a tragic coincidence, Lynch’s business partner Stephen Chamberlain — who was his co-defendant in the U.S. fraud case and the former chief operating officer of Darktrace — died on August 19, the same day the Bayesian sank, after being hit by a car while out jogging two days earlier.”
When local law enforcement first started thinking about securing the wreck, classified secrets weren’t even on their radar. The Italians were more concerned that “would-be thieves might try to reach the wreckage to find expensive jewelry and other objects of value still onboard the yacht.” That’s what “divers with the Fire Brigade” had to say.
They soon learned there may be more valuable things than gold and diamonds down there. Lynch “did not trust cloud services” and always “kept data drives in a secure compartment of the yacht wherever he sailed.”
Now, they’re nervous that the wreckage will “be of interest to foreign governments, including Russia and China.” The ship’s “expected to be raised in the coming weeks as part of the criminal investigation.”
Someone could steal the classified secrets before the yacht resurfaces. An official with the Sicilian civil protection authority confirms that “a formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreckage until it can be raised.“
