SISDE Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Democratica ( Intelligence and Democratic Security Service ) , was the domestic intelligence agency of Italy . With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services approved on 1 August 2007 , SISDE was replaced by AISI . History . Since the end of World War II , Italian intelligence agencies have been reorganized many times in an attempt to increase their effectiveness and bring them more fully under civilian control . The agency was established as part of a broader reform of the Italian intelligence community , which represented the latest in a long string of government attempts to effectively manage Italy ' s intelligence agencies . In 1977 , with Legislative Act n . 801 of 24 / 10 / 1977 , this came after a former chief of SID , Vito Miceli , was arrested for " conspiration against the State " ( See Golpe Borghese ) , and the intelligence agencies were reorganized in a democratic attempt . This re - organization mainly consisted of : In spite of these changes , in the early 1980s several members of SISDE were involved in the Propaganda 2 masonic lodge scandal . In 1992 , SISDE member Bruno Contrada , who had led some intelligence cells in Palermo , was arrested for involvement with Sicilian mafia . The service was also involved in the massacre of judge Paolo Borsellino in 1992 . Investigations held by police telecommunication expert Gioacchino Genchi attested the presence of an undercover SISDE seat in the Castello Utveggio , a liberty - style castle on the Monte Pellegrino , a mountain overlooking Palermo and Via D ' Amelio , the street in which Borsellino was killed . The circumstance was discovered by analyzing the phone calls of a mafia boss , Gaetano Scotto , who called a phone number owned by SISDE in the castle . After the revelation , Genchi was removed from investigations and the Castello Utveggio case archived by the Tribunal of Caltanissetta . Borsellino had also met Contrada in the Ministry of Interiors , in Rome , two days before his death . Since 1 August 2007 , with Legislative Act n . 124 of 08 / 03 / 2007 , following the reform of the Italian intelligence agencies , SISDE , SISMI and CESIS were replaced respectively by AISI , AISE and DIS , and the COPACO was granted additional oversight and control powers . SISDE ' s last director was prefect Franco Gabrielli . Mission . SISDE ' s mission was targeted to the defense of the State and its Institutions against whoever tries to threaten them , and from all subversion attempts . It shared responsibility for this task with SISMI , except in matters involving organized crime . SISDE reported to the Ministry of the Interior , which attended to its regulations , supervised its activities , and designated its directors . Motto and logo . SISDE ' s motto , as seen on its logo , was " Per aspera ad veritatem " ( Latin for " Through difficulties towards the truth " ) . It was depicted for the first time only in the second version of its official logo , in 1982 , and it was maintained in the third and last version , adopted in 2002 . It was chosen because , « by means of the balance between tradition and innovation , [ it ] emphasizes with full meaning the will of the Institution to address the challenges of modern society , characterised by new and emerging asperities and instabilities , with the purpose to defend national security with that kind of knowledge offering which founds the mission of every modern intelligence system » .