Europol publishes 2025 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA)

Cybercriminals are turning personal data into high-value commodities—and business is booming.  Internet related crime is rapidly increasing.

Europol’s 2025 Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) reveals how stolen data fuels the digital underworld, powering a criminal ecosystem that spans from online fraud and ransomware to child exploitation and extortion.  The report paints a stark picture of a cybercrime economy built on access—access to your systems, your identity, and your most sensitive information.

The Head of Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre, Edvardas Šileris, commented:  “You can’t defend what you don’t understand. Europol’s IOCTA 2025 report sheds light on the hidden economy of stolen data that powers today’s most dangerous cyber threat, giving law enforcement, policymakers, and industry the intelligence needed to act decisively.”

From phishing to phone scams, and from malware to AI-generated deepfakes, cybercriminals use a constantly evolving toolkit to compromise systems and steal personal information. These stolen credentials and data sets are then sold, resold, and repackaged by data and access brokers operating across dark web forums, encrypted channels, and subscription-based criminal marketplaces.

For more information see the full report

EAST focusses on tackling cybercrime through the EAST Expert Group on Payment and Transaction Fraud (EPTF).

Information on how to protect yourself can be found on the Cardholders page on this website.