Telegram, with over 700 million users globally, is widely known for its privacy features, but its lack of strict moderation has made it a favored platform for cyber criminals. Over recent years, the platform has been linked to illegal activities, including drug and weapons trafficking, child exploitation, and cyber crime operations like phishing, malware distribution, and stolen data trading.

The Cyberint Europe Threat Landscape 2024-2025 report sheds light on the increasingly complex and evolving cyber threat environment affecting organizations across Europe and the UK. Leveraging data from Cyberint—which monitors threats like phishing, malware, and supply chain vulnerabilities—the report highlights a surge in malicious activities driven by global conflicts, technological shifts, and the growing use of generative AI in cybercrime.

Although 2024 began with a Q1 decline in the frequency of ransomware attacks, the second quarter was underscored by a return to a much more intimidating world of ransomware attacks globally, and the third quarter continues the trend of the second. In Q2 2024, the number of attacks stood at 1,277 cases, but Q3 saw a small decrease of 5.5% with 1209 cases.

For phishing scammers, the holidays are the most wonderful time of the year – or so holiday phishing trends would suggest. Cyberint research shows that phishing alerts surged by 46 percent last December compared to the monthly average observed throughout the year. Similarly, an Akamai study found a 150 percent increase in phishing victims between mid-October and late November 2021.

MEOW ransomware is a significant cyber threat known for its disruptive activities. Unlike the infamous Conti ransomware, MEOW is a modified version that retains many of Conti’s core functionalities and encryption techniques.