The German Cyber Criminal Überfall: Shifts in Europe's Data Leak Landscape

The 2025 outlook reports a pronounced resurgence of German data leaks and ransomware extortion, with a 92% increase in German leaks—triple the European average—driven by the proliferation of agile data leak sites (e.g., SafePay, Qilin) after disruption of larger groups like LockBit. Threat actors are expanding globally and focusing on Germany's Mittelstand and professional services, exploiting supply chains and smaller organizations as pivot points; the report recommends containment and hardening measures for ransomware.