Staying ahead of threats: 5 cybercrime trends to watch

A high-level overview of five cybercrime trends from Europol and the UK NCA: growing collaboration between nation-states and organized crime; data as the core commodity fueling fraud, extortion, and service-based criminal ecosystems; repeated targeting of the same victims via resold access by initial access brokers; phishing sustained as the dominant initial access vector alongside RDP brute forcing and VPN exploits, with generative AI enhancing lures and deepfakes; and normalization and recruitment of youth through dark- and surface-web forums—underscoring the need for coordinated action across law enforcement, vendors, businesses, and consumers to strengthen defenses.