Europol has launched a new Operational Taskforce (OTF) to tackle the rising trend of violence-as-a-service and the recruitment of young perpetrators into serious and organised crime. Known as OTF GRIMM, the Taskforce, led by Sweden, brings together law enforcement authorities from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway, with Europol providing operational support, threat analysis and coordination.
The exploitation of young perpetrators to carry out criminal acts has emerged as a fast-evolving tactic used by organised crime. This trend was underlined in the European Union Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment 2025 (EU-SOCTA), which identified the deliberate use of youngsters as a way to avoid detection and prosecution.
Violence-as-a-service refers to the outsourcing of violent acts to criminal service providers — often involving the use of young perpetrators to carry out threats, assaults, or killings for a fee.
Investigations show that these acts are often orchestrated remotely, with young people recruited and instructed online. There is a clear demand from the criminal underworld for youngsters willing to carry out violent tasks — and a supply of vulnerable young people being groomed or coerced into doing so.
Hannah Neumann was targeted in a cyber-espionage operation by an infamous Iranian hacking group earlier this year, she said.
A prominent European Parliament member was the victim of what is believed to be a cyber-espionage operation tied to her role as chair of the chamber's Iran delegation, she told POLITICO.
The office of Hannah Neumann, a member of the German Greens and head of the delegation spearheading work on European Union-Iran relations, was targeted by a hacking campaign that started in January, she said. Her staff was contacted with messages, phone calls and emails by hackers impersonating a legitimate contact. They eventually managed to target a laptop with malicious software.
"It was a very sophisticated attempt using various ways to manage that someone accidentally opens a link, including putting personal pressure on them," Neumann said.
Un tribunal de Cracovie a condamné le 14 février deux Russes pour leur campagne de recrutement pour Wagner. Une opération directement pilotée depuis la Russie. Les détails du procès permettent de comprendre les contours de la "guerre hybride" que mène Moscou à l'Europe. - "Rejoignez-nous" : ce que révèle le procès de deux agents de Wagner sur leur activité en Europe (International).
The Council imposed restrictive measures on three individuals involved in cyber-attacks against Estonia.
A spate of devastating attacks on the health care sector prompts Brussels to ramp up funding and threat intelligence.
The Commission has presented an EU Action Plan to strengthen the cybersecurity of hospitals and healthcare providers. This initiative is a key priority within the first 100 days of the new mandate, aiming to create a safer and more secure environment for patients.
In 2023 alone, EU countries reported 309 significant cybersecurity incidents targeting the healthcare sector – more than any other critical sector. As healthcare providers increasingly use digital health records, the risk of data-related threats continues to rise. Many systems can be affected, including electronic health records, hospital workflow systems, and medical devices. Such threats can compromise patient care and even put lives at risk.
Personal data of nearly 100,000 individuals that have participated in trainings organized by EU CEPOL has potentially been compromised.
Russia and other hostile states have become increasingly brazen in adopting “gray zone” attacks against Europe and the United States, leaving defense officials with a dilemma: How to respond?
A phishing campaign targeting European companies used fake forms made with HubSpot's Free Form Builder, leading to credential harvesting and Azure account takeover. A phishing campaign targeting European companies used fake forms made with HubSpot's Free Form Builder, leading to credential harvesting and Azure account takeover.
Today, the Commission has opened formal proceedings against TikTok for a suspected breach of the DSA in relation to TikTok's obligation to properly assess and mitigate systemic risks linked to election integrity, notably in the context of the recent Romanian presidential elections on 24 November.
Meta has been fined €251 million (around $263 million) in the European Union for a Facebook security breach that affected millions of users, which the
A Chinese threat actor infiltrated several IT and security companies in a bring-your-own VS code, with an eye to carrying out a supply-chain-based espionage attack.
Meta and X have already paused some AI training over same set of concerns.
The Dutch Data Protection Authority imposed the largest fine yet against facial recognition company Clearview AI under the GDPR.
European regulators said TikTok Lite Rewards potentially caused addictive behavior, and the company failed to provide a risk assessment before launching the program.
EU Member States, with the support of the European Commission and ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, published the first report on the cybersecurity and resilience of Europe’s telecommunications and electricity sectors.
How Doppelganger, one of the biggest Russian disinformation campaigns, is using EU companies to keep spreading its propaganda – despite sanctions.
#Fact-checking
A handful cryptographers were asked for feedback on the architecture of the European Identity Wallet (the Architecture Reference Framwork (ARF), currently at version 1.4.0). We seized the opportunity to write a short report to urge Europe to reconsider the design, and to base it on the use of anonymous (aka attribute-based) credentials.
Anonymous credentials were designed specifically to achieve authentication and identification that are both secure and privacy-preserving. As a result, they fully meet the requirements put forth in the eiDAS 2.0 regulation. (The current design does not.) Moreover, they are by now a mature technology. In particular we recommend to use the BBS family of anonymous credentials, which are efficient and mathematically proven secure.
Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta is pausing its plans to roll our artificial intelligence tools in Europe, following a request from Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC), the firm said in a Friday (14 June) blogpost.
Microsoft's education-focused flavor of its cloud productivity suite, Microsoft 365 Education, is facing investigation in the European Union. Privacy
