Europol is warning law enforcement agencies about the hidden economy of stolen data

Cybercriminals are turning personal data and other stolen information into ‘high-value commodities’, fueling a criminal ecosystem that spans from online fraud and ransomware to child exploitation and extortion.

That’s one of Europol’s conclusions in the latest edition of the Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA) report, which was published on Wednesday.

IOCTA describes Europol’s analysis of evolving threats and trends in the cybercrime landscape over the last year. According to Europe’s intelligence agency, organized crime has evolved at an unprecedented pace during the past 12 months.

For starters, data theft has become an even more significant threat. From phishing to phone scams, compromised data is being used by criminals to exploit and scam unsuspecting victims. But it’s also traded as goods: access credentials to remote services, compromised corporate networks, and personal logins are sold in bulk on the dark web.

To pull this off, cybercriminals no longer need technical skills. Crime-as-a-service (CaaS) platforms offer everything from stolen data to step-by-step fraud tutorials. And once stolen data falls into the wrong hands, it can be weaponized for extortion, online fraud campaigns, identity theft, and abuse. Even against children.

Evolving technology like artificial intelligence (AI) plays a significant role in the success story of cybercriminals.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technologies are accelerating the dark side of the digital revolution, with cybercriminals exploiting them to increase the scale and efficiency of their operations (…) Data has become a key commodity, serving both as a target and a key enabler in the cybercrime threat landscape,” Europol writes in its IOCTA report.

To counter these digital threats, Europol calls for coordinated policy responses at the EU level, including lawful access solutions for end-to-end encryption, harmonized rules on data retention, and increased efforts to boost digital literacy.