Global Law Enforcement Actions Against Cybercrime (2021–2025)
Summary
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A dataset of 418 publicly announced law enforcement actions against cybercrime between 2021 and mid-2025 reveals trends in criminal activities, enforcement strategies, and offender demographics. Extortion, malware, and hacking dominate the criminal acts addressed, with arrests being the most common enforcement action. The U.S. leads in enforcement actions, followed by European countries, and private organizations play a significant role in public-private partnerships. The data highlights that cybercrime is predominantly financially motivated, with a notable concentration of offenders from Russia, the U.S., China, Ukraine, and North Korea. Age-wise, most offenders are between 18 and 44 years old, with younger individuals more likely to engage in technical crimes like hacking and DDoS attacks, while older offenders focus on profit-driven activities such as cyber extortion and malware deployment.
Timeline
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30.01.2026 13:30 1 articles · 23h ago
Global Law Enforcement Actions Against Cybercrime (2021–2025)
A dataset of 418 publicly announced law enforcement actions against cybercrime between 2021 and mid-2025 reveals trends in criminal activities, enforcement strategies, and offender demographics. Extortion, malware, and hacking dominate the criminal acts addressed, with arrests being the most common enforcement action. The U.S. leads in enforcement actions, followed by European countries, and private organizations play a significant role in public-private partnerships. The data highlights that cybercrime is predominantly financially motivated, with a notable concentration of offenders from Russia, the U.S., China, Ukraine, and North Korea. Age-wise, most offenders are between 18 and 44 years old, with younger individuals more likely to engage in technical crimes like hacking and DDoS attacks, while older offenders focus on profit-driven activities such as cyber extortion and malware deployment.
Show sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
Information Snippets
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Extortion, including ransomware, is the most addressed criminal act by law enforcement, followed by malware and hacking.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
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Arrests account for 29% of law enforcement actions, with takedowns and charges also being significant.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
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The U.S. is the primary participant in nearly half of all law enforcement actions, followed by Germany, the UK, Russia, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Spain, and France.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
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Private organizations are major supporting actors in cybercrime disruption efforts, with 74 distinct private entities identified in the dataset.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
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Russian nationals account for 23% of identified offenders, followed by Americans, Chinese, Ukrainians, and North Koreans.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30
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Offenders aged 35-44 are the most represented group, with cyber extortion and malware being the dominant offenses.
First reported: 30.01.2026 13:301 source, 1 articleShow sources
- Badges, Bytes and Blackmail — thehackernews.com — 30.01.2026 13:30