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SPECIALIST security is set to guard Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht over fears rogue governments may want to plunder it for sensitive secrets.
Italian prosecutors reckon there could be classified information locked inside the £30million Bayesian which sunk during a storm off Sicily on August 22.
EPA
EPA
Salvage experts believe passcodes could be among data held on two super-encrypted hard drives stored in on-board watertight safes.
Local law enforcement initially feared professional thieves might loot the 164ft vessel, which is set to be raised in the coming weeks, for valuables like expensive jewellery.
But they have asked for security to be bolstered both above water and underwater due to concerns over foreign powers like Russia and China.
A Sicilian civil protection authority official assisting with the criminal investigation told CNN: “A formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreckage until it can be raised.”
Mr Lynch, 59, had connections with British, American and other intelligence services through firms like his cyber security company Darktrace.
The billionaire tycoon, known as Britain’s Bill Gates, previously advised PMs like David Cameron and Theresa May as an expert on science, technology and security.
The tragic trip was celebrating Mr Lynch’s acquittal from a US fraud trial surrounding the £8.6billion sale of his Autonomy company to Hewlett Packard.
He died alongside 18-year-old daughter Hannah, on-board chef Recaldo Thomas, lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy.
His wife Angela Bacares and 14 others survived including captain James Cutfield who is being probed for multiple manslaughter.
Inside The Bayesian's final 16 minutes
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Data recovered from the Bayesian’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat’s mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat’s AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat – named Sir Robert Baden Powell – then helped take those people to shore.
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