Cybercrime Archives | Digital Watch Observatory

Cyber Europe 2026 tests EU response to large-scale cyber crises

The EU Agency for Cybersecurity has led Cyber Europe 2026, a two-day exercise testing Europe’s response to large-scale cyberattacks on rail and maritime transport networks.

The exercise, held on 10 and 11 June, brought together more than 5,000 participants from national cybersecurity agencies, EU and EFTA public and private sector organisations, the EU entities and industry. It was designed to strengthen cyber preparedness and test the continuity of essential services during a major crisis affecting interconnected transport systems.

The scenario simulated coordinated attacks on critical maritime and railway infrastructure across Europe. Port logistics and navigation systems were compromised, cargo movements were halted, and safety risks emerged. Railway networks were also disrupted, with cross-border trains frozen and passengers and supplies delayed.

Participants also had to respond to ransomware attacks affecting transport authorities and ticketing services, as well as exposure of sensitive passenger and emergency information. ENISA said the scenario required information-sharing and coordination at technical, operational and political levels.

Cyber Europe 2026 also tested the EU Cybersecurity Blueprint, revised in 2025 to strengthen crisis management for large-scale incidents. For the first time, the EU Cybersecurity Reserve was tested under Cyber Europe, using a scenario that required participants to follow ENISA procedures for activating incident response support under the mechanism.

ENISA said findings from the exercise will be analysed in after-action reports to identify weaknesses and improve Europe’s preparedness and response processes.

Why does it matter?

The exercise shows how cyber incidents affecting transport infrastructure can quickly move beyond technical disruption into broader economic, safety and crisis-management risks. Ports, railways, logistics systems, ticketing platforms and navigation tools are increasingly interconnected, often combining legacy operational technology with modern digital systems. Testing EU-level coordination matters because attacks on transport networks can affect trade, military mobility, emergency response and public trust across borders.

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Singapore warns of Microsoft impersonation scams causing major losses

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) have warned the public about technical support scams that impersonate Microsoft. Authorities said at least 10 cases had been reported since February 2026, with total losses exceeding S$1.7 million.

In this scam variant, victims typically encounter a pop-up alert in their web browser. The alert falsely appears to originate from Microsoft and claims that the user’s device has been hacked or compromised.

Victims are then instructed to contact a so-called technical support officer through an internet-based phone number. After making contact, victims may be transferred to another scammer posing as a police officer, who claims that their device has been used for criminal activities such as money laundering.

Authorities in Singapore said victims may be instructed to make bank transfers, provide banking credentials, or grant remote access to their devices. In some cases, scammers asked victims to download remote access applications or click links that allowed them to take control of bank accounts.

SPF and CSA advised members of the public to verify alerts through official software provider channels. They noted that Microsoft does not include phone numbers in error or warning messages, and that users should not call numbers displayed in suspicious pop-ups or click links or buttons within such alerts.

People who believe they have fallen victim to the scam are advised to disconnect their computer from the internet, contact their bank, remove applications installed under the scammer’s instructions, and run an anti-virus scan. They should also change passwords and banking credentials using a trusted device, remove unauthorised payees, and report the incident to the police and CSA’s SingCERT.

Why does it matter?

Technical support scams remain one of the most effective forms of cyber-enabled fraud because they combine social engineering, impersonation and remote access techniques. By exploiting trust in well-known brands such as Microsoft and creating a sense of urgency, scammers can persuade victims to hand over sensitive information or direct access to their devices.

The cases also highlight how cybersecurity and financial security are increasingly interconnected. Basic cyber hygiene practices, such as verifying security alerts through official channels, avoiding unsolicited remote access requests and reporting incidents quickly, can help prevent account compromise and reduce financial losses.

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Europol-backed operation dismantles crypto laundering service used by ransomware gangs

An international law enforcement operation has dismantled a cryptocurrency laundering service allegedly used by ransomware gangs and cybercriminal networks to process more than €336 million in illicit funds.

The platform, known as ‘AudiA6’, is suspected of laundering proceeds from ransomware attacks, large-scale cryptocurrency thefts and other cybercrime activity between 2022 and 2025. Europol said the service was linked through its analysis to more than 15 international cybercrime investigations.

The coordinated action, supported by Europol and Eurojust, led to the arrest of two alleged administrators in Georgia. Authorities also took down 25 domains, seized more than 30 servers, blocked Telegram accounts used by the network and froze or seized cryptocurrency assets worth more than €778,000.

Investigators allege that the service used thousands of fraudulent exchange accounts created with stolen or purchased identities. Criminal clients allegedly transferred cryptocurrency to wallets controlled by the group and received laundered funds through complex transaction chains designed to obscure the money trail.

Authorities also confiscated more than 80 vehicles and several properties in Georgia. Europol said the case highlights how specialised money laundering services help sustain ransomware and other forms of cybercrime by making it easier for criminal groups to cash out stolen digital assets.

Why does it matter?

Crypto laundering services are a key part of the cybercrime economy because they allow ransomware groups and other attackers to turn stolen digital assets into usable funds. Disrupting such infrastructure can weaken criminal business models. Still, the case also shows why cybercrime investigations increasingly require cooperation between cyber units, financial investigators, prosecutors, crypto exchanges and cross-border law enforcement agencies.

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UN Cybercrime Convention Protocol talks reveal competing visions

The process of developing a supplementary protocol to the UN Convention against Cybercrime has begun, with early state submissions already showing competing views over its scope and timing.

The Ad Hoc Committee Secretariat invited preliminary written inputs on the possible scope, objectives and structure of a draft protocol supplementary to the Convention, also known as the ‘Hanoi Convention’. The mandate follows UN General Assembly resolution 79/243, which asked the Committee to negotiate a draft protocol addressing, among other issues, additional criminal offences.

The United States questioned the exercise’s premise, arguing that discussions on a supplementary protocol are premature because the Convention has not yet entered into force and its implementation has not yet been tested. Washington called for the Committee first to address whether a protocol is needed at all before discussing its scope, objectives and structure.

Russia, by contrast, submitted a draft protocol text covering a broad range of offences, including terrorism financing, extremism, arms and drug trafficking, critical information infrastructure, unauthorised access to personal data and crimes involving AI. The proposal reflects a wider approach to criminalisation, including content-related offences that are likely to be contested by states concerned about overreach, legal certainty and human rights safeguards.

Other early submissions appear more cautious. Brazil, Nigeria, and Ecuador broadly support advancing the protocol process, while signalling the need to limit its scope and maintain attention to safeguards. Brazil warned against including offences where there is insufficient international consensus, while Ecuador proposed a structure that includes emerging offences, digital evidence, public-private cooperation, proportionality and human rights.

The early inputs point to a familiar divide in UN cybercrime negotiations: whether the treaty framework should remain focused on classical cybercrime, electronic evidence and criminal justice cooperation, or expand further into content-based offences, national security concerns and politically sensitive forms of online conduct.

Why does it matter?

A supplementary protocol could shape the evolution of the UN cybercrime framework after the adoption of the main Convention. If states use the protocol to add broad or content-related offences, the treaty system could move beyond core cybercrime and electronic evidence cooperation into areas with direct implications for freedom of expression, human rights safeguards, political speech, platform governance and state sovereignty. The early submissions suggest that those unresolved tensions are already resurfacing before the Convention has entered into force.

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Google highlights rising online scam threats

Google has warned that online scams remain a major global challenge, citing estimates that fraud losses could reach nearly $580 billion in 2025.

In its latest fraud and scams advisory, the company said phishing attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with criminals using adversary-in-the-middle techniques and QR code phishing, also known as quishing, to steal credentials and bypass security measures.

The advisory also highlighted risks linked to cryptocurrency investment scams, malicious finance applications and police impersonation schemes. According to Google, scammers are using AI, social engineering and trusted digital services to deceive users, obtain money and collect sensitive information.

Google said its Trust & Safety teams are using AI tools, predictive analytics and policy enforcement to detect and disrupt fraudulent activity across its services. The company also pointed to measures such as stronger protections for session cookies, enforcement against deceptive crypto ads, monitoring of post-installation app behaviour and developer identity verification for apps installed on certified Android devices.

The company urged users to be cautious of unsolicited communications, unrealistic investment promises, unexpected QR codes and requests for personal or financial information.

Why does it matter?

The advisory shows how online fraud is becoming a cross-platform governance problem rather than a narrow cybersecurity issue. Scams now rely on trusted cloud services, mobile apps, messaging platforms, crypto infrastructure and impersonation of public authorities. That creates pressure on major technology companies to strengthen detection, app accountability and policy enforcement, while raising broader questions about consumer protection, platform responsibility and digital trust.

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Crypto mixers gain recognition in US Treasury assessment

The US Treasury Department has acknowledged that cryptocurrency mixers may have lawful privacy uses, while warning that such tools remain vulnerable to abuse by illicit actors.

In a March 2026 report to Congress on innovative technologies to counter illicit finance involving digital assets, Treasury said lawful users may rely on mixers to protect sensitive financial information when transacting on public blockchains. The report said users may seek to conceal details about personal wealth, business payments, charitable donations or consumer spending habits.

Treasury distinguished between custodial digital asset services, including custodial mixers, and decentralised or non-custodial mechanisms that can operate without a central intermediary. Custodial services that accept and transmit value may be required to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network as money services businesses, maintain records and file suspicious activity reports.

The report nevertheless stressed that criminals commonly use mixers, bridges and swaps to make illicit digital asset flows harder to trace. Treasury said mixing is frequently used by North Korea-linked cyber actors, money launderers, ransomware actors and darknet market participants.

Treasury also warned that stablecoins can form part of complex laundering processes involving mixers and other obfuscation techniques. According to the report, illicit actors may move stolen or fraud-linked assets through mixers and then swap them into stablecoins to break the traceable link to the original criminal activity.

The assessment was prepared under the GENIUS Act, which required the Treasury to examine innovative tools for countering illicit finance involving digital assets, including the role of mixers, tumblers and similar services.

Why does it matter?

The report shows the regulatory tension at the centre of digital asset policy: privacy tools can protect legitimate users on transparent public blockchains, but the same tools can also weaken AML/CFT controls, sanctions enforcement and law enforcement tracing. Treasury’s framing matters because future rules on mixers, DeFi, blockchain analytics and stablecoin compliance will need to balance financial privacy with security and illicit finance risks.

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WhatsApp seeks contempt order against NSO over spyware targeting

WhatsApp has asked a US court to hold NSO Group in contempt, alleging that the spyware company violated a permanent injunction barring it from targeting WhatsApp and its users.

The company said it disrupted spear-phishing attempts linked to NSO after investigating user reports. According to WhatsApp, the activity involved malicious links that sought to redirect users to external websites outside the messaging platform.

WhatsApp also said it identified and removed test accounts and groups created on its service as part of the suspected NSO-linked activity. The company is sharing threat indicators to help users and researchers check whether targeting attempts may have occurred across WhatsApp, text messages, email, or other channels.

The latest filing follows WhatsApp’s earlier legal victory against NSO. The company said a court found that NSO violated federal and state anti-hacking laws and issued a permanent injunction barring NSO from targeting WhatsApp and its users.

WhatsApp described commercial spyware as a national security threat, arguing that surveillance-for-hire firms target not only messaging services but also browsers, operating systems, and other applications.
The company said the targets reported for such tools include journalists, government officials, military personnel, and humanitarian organisations. It also warned against easing US restrictions on NSO, which remains on the US government’s Entity List.

WhatsApp said it is contributing to the Spyware Accountability Initiative, which supports organisations working on forensic research, user support, and advocacy against spyware.

Why does it matter?

The case shows how legal orders against spyware companies may still require active technical monitoring and enforcement. WhatsApp’s contempt request also keeps pressure on the commercial spyware industry, where surveillance tools can move across platforms, devices, browsers, and operating systems. The story matters for encrypted communications because it shows that protecting users depends not only on encryption, but also on legal accountability, threat intelligence, vulnerability research, and support for civil society targets.

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Tech firms and law enforcement disrupt Southeast Asia scam networks

A major international operation involving Meta, Microsoft, Coinbase, Starlink, and law enforcement agencies from several countries has disrupted large-scale criminal scam networks operating across Southeast Asia.

The coordinated effort combined digital intelligence, financial investigations, platform enforcement, and real-world law enforcement action to target organised groups responsible for online fraud, investment scams, and other cyber-enabled crimes.

According to Meta, the operation removed more than 1.4 million fraudulent accounts, pages, and groups across Facebook and Instagram. Microsoft suspended around 20,000 malicious accounts linked to scam activity, while Coinbase froze more than $3 million in cryptocurrency assets associated with criminal operations.

Starlink also shut down thousands of internet terminals allegedly used by fraud operations, while law enforcement authorities arrested 63 individuals linked to scam centres.

The initiative brought together the US Department of Justice, the FBI, the US Secret Service, the Royal Thai Police, and law enforcement agencies from the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

Meta said intelligence sharing between technology companies and law enforcement helped identify additional scam locations and uncover previously unknown criminal networks operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Why does it matter?

The operation shows how online scam networks now rely on a full digital stack: social media accounts, messaging, cryptocurrency payments, connectivity infrastructure, and cross-border money movement. Disrupting these networks increasingly requires coordination between platforms, financial services, internet providers, and law enforcement. The case also highlights the link between digital fraud and physical scam compounds in Southeast Asia, where cybercrime operations often operate across multiple jurisdictions.

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New Zealand’s NCSC warns frontier AI could amplify cybersecurity risks

New Zealand’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued guidance to help government agencies prepare for the cybersecurity implications of frontier AI systems. The advisory notes that frontier AI models may enable more advanced automation, reasoning and decision-making capabilities than previous generations of AI systems.

The guidance describes frontier AI as a dual-use technology, noting that the same capabilities that enhance cyber defence could also enable malicious actors to conduct cyber operations more quickly, at lower cost and on a larger scale. The NCSC warns that frontier AI could amplify risks associated with known vulnerabilities, legacy systems and poor cyber hygiene, creating what it describes as a ‘vulnerability storm’ for organisations.

According to the NCSC, organisations do not need access to the most advanced frontier AI models to strengthen their cyber resilience. Instead, it says effective readiness depends on existing cybersecurity mitigations and practices, including the New Zealand Information Security Manual, the NCSC Cyber Security Framework, Minimum Cyber Security Standards, and Protective Security Requirements.

The advisory urges government entities to treat several actions as immediate priorities, including reviewing compliance with existing standards, confirming executive accountability for frontier AI cyber risk, reviewing NCSC guidance, and identifying material gaps that AI-enabled threat actors could exploit.

The guidance also restates the NCSC Cyber Security Framework’s five functions: guide and govern, identify and understand, prevent and protect, detect and contain, and respond and recover. The advisory highlights a range of baseline cybersecurity measures, including risk management, security awareness, secure configuration, patch management, multi-factor authentication, least-privilege access controls, anomaly detection, data recovery and incident response planning.

Why does it matter?

Frontier AI is expected to increase the speed, scale and sophistication of cyber operations, potentially allowing attackers to identify vulnerabilities, automate exploitation and conduct campaigns more efficiently than before.

Rather than relying solely on new AI-specific defences, New Zealand’s guidance emphasises that strong cybersecurity fundamentals, including patching, access controls, monitoring and incident response, remain the most effective way to reduce risk. The advisory reflects a growing international view that AI is amplifying existing cyber challenges rather than replacing them with entirely new ones.

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Supply chain attack compromises Red Hat software packages on npm

Security researchers at Aikido and JFrog identified malicious code in more than 30 software packages published through a verified Red Hat Cloud Services account on npm, the widely used software package repository for developers. The packages are used across cloud application development and are installed by developers and automated systems worldwide.

According to the researchers, the attackers did not initially target individual developers. Instead, evidence suggests they gained access to the automated pipeline used to publish Red Hat Cloud Services packages to npm. Evidence indicates they gained access to the automated pipeline that publishes Red Hat Cloud Services software to npm, allowing them to distribute modified packages through an officially trusted channel. Developers and organisations following standard security practice, only installing software from verified, trusted sources, would have had no reason to suspect these packages.

Systems that installed the affected packages from 1 June onward may have executed hidden malicious code capable of harvesting credentials and transmitting them to the attackers. That code collected a wide range of credentials from the affected machine: access keys for Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services; tokens used in automated software pipelines; passwords stored in cloud-based vaults; and credentials for a range of developer tools. The collected data was then transmitted to the attackers.

Researchers said the malware attempted to disguise its outbound communications by mimicking requests to an Anthropic-related service address, potentially making malicious traffic less conspicuous in network logs. The specific path used does not correspond to any real Anthropic end point, but its appearance in network logs would be inconspicuous at organisations using Anthropic products. Network defenders should treat any automated process contacting that address as a potential indicator of compromise.

The malware also installs persistent background processes that survive system restarts, and embeds hooks into several widely used AI coding assistants and developer tools. Researchers also warned that the malware may delete files if compromised credentials are revoked before the malicious software is fully removed from the affected system. Organisations investigating this incident should remove all traces of the malware before revoking any compromised credentials.

Aikido and JFrog have published a list of affected package versions and recommend treating any system that installed them on or after 1 June 2026 as potentially compromised until investigated.

Why does it matter?

Software supply chain attacks are particularly difficult to defend against because they exploit trusted distribution channels rather than relying on phishing, malware downloads or other forms of user error. In this case, developers and organisations installing software from a verified source could have unknowingly introduced malicious code into their environments.

The incident also highlights growing concerns around the security of software publishing infrastructure. As organisations increasingly depend on open-source components and automated development pipelines, compromises affecting trusted repositories can have far-reaching consequences across cloud environments, development systems and critical digital services.

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