Bayesian superyacht sinking: Safes on tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken boat ‘may contain intelligence data’

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has made the “difficult decision” to pursue Mike Lynch’s estate for £4bn in the interests of shareholders, despite the tech billionaire being killed along with his daughter on the Bayesian superyacht.

Antonio Neri, a former engineer turned HPE chief executive, told the Financial Times: “Obviously my job as shareholder representative is to make the tough decisions.

“These are difficult decisions, but ultimately we make decisions in the best interests of shareholders.”

Mike Lynch was celebrating his acquittal of criminal charges against the superyacht when it capsized during a freak storm.

But HPE intends to seek damages from a previous civil trial in the UK in 2022, which ruled in favour of HPE’s claim that Lynch and former CFO Sushovan Hussain inflated Autonomy’s apparent value during the acquisition.

Professor Yoav Yair, dean of the School of Sustainable Development at Reichman University in Israel, told the Mirror that storms dubbed “medicans” – Mediterranean hurricanes – could cause similar shipwrecks to the Bayesian superyacht.

He said: “The question is not whether it (the Bayesian disaster) will happen again, but rather when and where.

“In recent years, we have seen medicanes, a new phenomenon. These are hurricane-type storms that contain a lot of energy and create flash floods, torrential rains, lightning, hail and strong and sustained winds. The 2023 medicane “Daniel” destroyed Libya and caused more than 30,000 deaths in the country.

“Sea surface temperatures have increased globally and also in the Mediterranean, loading the atmosphere with increased fluxes of water vapor, meaning a higher risk of massive storms.”

Mike Lynch has often been described as Britain’s Bill Gates for founding Autonomy, one of the largest software companies on the planet.

Divers have called for increased security after discovering watertight safes that may contain highly classified information, sources tell CNN.

Authorities have confirmed they are seeking increased security, with sources suggesting confidential information about the ship could be of interest to Russia and China.

An official working with the ship’s salvage team said the vessel would contain watertight safes with two super-encrypted hard drives, CNN reports.

Francesco Venuto of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency told CNN: “A formal request has been accepted and implemented for additional security of the wreck until it can be refloated.”

Three crew members, including the yacht’s captain, are under investigation, and plans are being discussed to raise the yacht from the ocean floor to aid investigations.

Those killed included Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to start her studies at Oxford University in September, the yacht’s chef and four other family friends and associates.

A report has revealed that classified intelligence information could be stored 50 metres below the surface of the Bayesian superyacht.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died in the yacht sinking, was known to have links to intelligence services around the world, including British and American.

Part of the connection comes from his cybersecurity company Darktrace, which he founded in 2011 in partnership with former British intelligence officials, Politico reports.

Stephen Huxter, the company’s co-founder, has become managing director. He previously held a senior role in MI5’s cyber defence team.

Darktrace is used to combat cyberattacks by learning the behavioral patterns of an organization’s actors and detecting any unusual activity.

Former MI5 chief Jonathan Evans sat on board the company, and Jim Penrose, who worked at the US National Security Agency, headed the company’s operations in America.

A number of other intelligence services were also involved in Darktrace.

Lynch also had other projects linked to spy agencies. Cambridge Neurodynamics, a company specializing in fingerprint recognition for computers, was hired by British intelligence.

Bodies of Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah have been repatriated to their families after the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian

My colleague Tom Watling reports:

The former captain of the Bayesian superyacht says he has spoken to all surviving crew members to hear their version of the sinking.

Stephen Edwards said all crew members on deck rescued as many passengers as they could, but going down to the flooded lower parts of the yacht “would have meant certain death”.

The former captain told the Telegraph: “They’re not doing very well.”

“The overwhelming feeling is always one of shock over the event. They have to deal with what happened, how it happened and how quickly it happened.”

Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and five others died when the Bayesian crashed in a downburst, similar to a small tornado.

Other victims of the August 19 tragedy included Chief Recaldo Thomas, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.

According to Italian media outlet La Republica, four of the victims died of suffocation caused by air bubbles filled with carbon dioxide. Autopsies suggest that they may have been conscious after the yacht sank.

Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.

In Italy, waterspouts can cause winds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, while downbursts can produce gusts of around 150 kilometers per hour.

Statistics show that wind gusts are becoming more frequent across the country, which Mercalli says could be linked to global warming.

Storms and heavy rains have hit Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat.

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius, almost 3 degrees above normal. This creates a huge source of energy that contributes to these storms,” ​​said Italian climatologist Luca Mercall.

“So we can’t say that all of this is due to climate change, but we can say that it has an amplifying effect.”

A similar storm killed four people when their tourist boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in May last year.

The country’s varied geology makes it prone to flooding and landslides, while its being flanked by rapidly warming seas makes it vulnerable to increasingly powerful storms.