According to media reports, the 14 suspects, who include four minors and two network security managers, were based in cities throughout Italy and are members of two hacking groups.
In addition to the charges of computer fraud, for which the 14 hackers face penalties of up to eight years imprisonment, the suspects are accused of stealing credit card details from web servers and the Italian police are reported to have seized counterfeit credit cards.
Further reports allege that the hackers also distributed pirate DVDs and kept the content of illegally duplicated films on university servers which they had accessed.