Europol published its fifth Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (IOCTA), which gives a comprehensive overview of current and future threats and identifies trends in crime conducted and/or facilitated online.

The 2018 IOCTA looks at the threats and trends with regard to four crime priorities:

• Cyber-dependent crime;
• Child sexual exploitation online;
• Payment fraud;
• Online criminal markets.

Furthermore, it examines the convergence of cybercrime and terrorism, cross-cutting crime factors, and the geographic distribution of cybercrime. For each area, the report provides key findings and recommendations.

In its summary, the report outlines the following eight key findings for the year 2018:

• Ransomware remains dominant;
• Production of Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) continues;
• Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) continues to plague public and private organisations;
• Card-not-present fraud dominates payment fraud, but skimming continues;
• As criminal abuse of cryptocurrencies grows, currency users and exchangers are becoming targets;
• Social engineering is still the engine of many cybercrimes;
• Cryptojacking sparks a new cybercrime trend;
• Shutters close on major Darknet markets, but business continues.

Finally, the report also describes a number of key legislative and technological developments, such as the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Network and Information Security (NIS) directive and 5G technology.