Weekly Cybersecurity Digest [November, Week 3]
Posted on November 18, 2025
Dear Valued Clients,
Welcome to this week’s cybersecurity digest from Make Sense, your trusted partner in building measurable resilience across Europe’s interconnected digital, industrial, and policy ecosystems. The third week of November highlighted decisive enforcement, evolving ransomware ecosystems, and the governance challenges posed by emerging AI technologies.
From Europol’s takedowns and industrial ransomware to agentic-AI risks and data-protection clarity, Europe’s security posture is being reshaped by collaboration, compliance, and computational complexity.
✅ Top Stories of the Week
i. Europol’s “Operation Endgame” dismantles 1,025 malicious servers
Between 10-13 November 2025, Europol coordinated Operation Endgame 3.0, disrupting infrastructure used by Rhadamanthys, VenomRAT and the Elysium botnet. Authorities seized 20 domains, took down 1,025 servers and arrested a key suspect in Greece. The action removed tooling that infected hundreds of thousands of machines and held millions of credentials – a major blow to Europe-centred cybercrime enablers. [Read more via Europol]
ii. Everest ransomware claims breach of Italian industrial gas group SIAD
On 12 November 2025, the Everest ransomware gang listed SIAD Group (Italy) on its leak site, claiming theft of ~159 GB of data and threatening publication. SIAD confirmed an intrusion affecting a perimeter IT component but said operations were continuing. The case underscores ransomware targeting of European industrial suppliers and the systemic risks to supply chains and healthcare customers. [Read more via CyberNews]
iii. Phishing Attacks in Switzerland: New scams target crypto users & seniors
Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported targeted phishing campaigns impersonating trusted bodies. One scam mimicked the Canton of Zurich tax portal, requesting disclosure of cryptocurrency holdings; another impersonated the Federal Tax Administration, targeting senior citizens with fake pension updates. The campaigns show how fraudsters increasingly weaponise socio-economic themes and perform reconnaissance before attack. [Read more via NCSC Switzerland]
Action prompt: Audit your public-facing communications and citizen-interaction channels – could brand impersonation or socio-economic profiling expose a new vulnerability vector?
✅ Industry Trends & Insights
Agentic-AI introduces new cyber-risk vectors in Europe
On 13 November 2025, a Thomson Reuters analysis highlighted how “agentic AI” (autonomous software agents) is now being adopted in EU enterprises, creating new cyber-risk vectors such as self-propagating exploits, prompt hijacking, and unsupervised decision-making loops. European CISOs were urged to integrate zero-trust, continuous monitoring and red-teaming of agentic-AI workflows before implementation. [Read via Thomson Reuters]
Ireland’s Cork becomes an emerging European cyber-hub with 100-job expansion
A global cybersecurity firm announced on 11 November 2025 that it will create up to 100 new specialist roles, including data scientists and AI/LLM engineers at its Irish base in Cork. Backed by the Irish Government, the expansion reinforces Ireland’s role in Europe’s cybersecurity ecosystem and reflects the industry’s shift toward AI-driven threat detection and investment in regional talent hubs. [Read more via IT Pro]
Consider: Could decentralising your security or analytics talent yield faster incident response and better regional coverage for clients?
Stakeholder event on anonymisation & pseudonymisation – European Data Protection Board
The EDPB issued a call for interest in a stakeholder event on the anonymisation and pseudonymisation of personal data, to gather input from organisations ahead of finalising the guidelines. The initiative reflects Europe’s push to clarify data-protection boundaries for emerging technologies and support consistent application of the GDPR across member states. [Read more via EDPB News]
✅ Regulatory & Policy Updates
EU unveils “European Democracy Shield”- DSA crisis protocol for disinformation
The EU on 12 Nov announced a European Democracy Shield: a strategy to combat large-scale disinformation and hybrid threats by mobilising Big Tech, improving detection/labelling of AI-generated content, and creating a DSA incidents & crisis protocol for rapid platform-state coordination. The plan increases platform obligations during cross-border influence operations ahead of elections. [Read more via Reuters]
Reflect: Which early-warning channels or media-risk dashboards feed into your crisis-communication framework, and could they detect AI-driven disinformation in real time?
Ireland’s regulator opens first DSA probe into X over moderation & appeals
On 12 Nov, Ireland’s media regulator opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s X for potentially failing to provide effective appeal mechanisms for content moderation under the Digital Services Act. As Ireland is the DSA lead regulator for many tech firms, the probe signals stricter enforcement and could trigger major fines or remedial orders if breaches are found. [Read more via Reuters]
European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issues Guidance for Risk Management of AI Systems
On 11 November 2025, the EDPS published detailed guidance for EU institutions on managing risks posed by AI systems, aligning with ISO 31000:2018. The document covers the AI lifecycle, emphasises interpretability and fairness, and offers technical controls aligned with data-protection principles: fairness, accuracy, data minimisation, and security. Controllers are urged to tailor risk assessments accordingly. [Read more via EDPS]
✅ Cyber IQ Challenge + Proactive Security Hacks
Quick Quiz:
Which capability best reinforces Europe’s cyber resilience amid AI innovation and the growth of industrial threats?
A) Periodic audits alone
B) Integrated AI-risk governance and continuous incident exercising
C) Vendor self-attestation programmes
D) Post-incident penalty management
(Answer below)
Smart Security Moves of the Week:
- AI governance acceleration: Embed risk registers for agentic AI processes and align with EDPS guidance on interpretability.
- Industrial resilience: Test ransomware response across supply-chain partners and simulate partial OT disruption scenarios.
- Threat infrastructure mapping: Cross-reference your network artefacts with known botnet IOCs from Operation Endgame.
- Public communication integrity: Run a hybrid exercise linking media monitoring with technical incident response.
Answer: B) Integrated AI-risk governance and continuous incident exercising.
✅ Conclusion
From Europol’s server takedowns and industrial ransomware to AI risk governance and disinformation defence, this week proved that Europe’s digital resilience depends on both technical and institutional adaptability. The continent is moving from reactive controls to coordinated cyber architecture – spanning law enforcement, AI policy, and data-protection standards.
Final reflection: If an AI-driven automation or hybrid infrastructure compromise struck your organisation tomorrow, how quickly could you trace, contain and communicate without losing trust?
At Make Sense, we turn intelligence into measurable defence – integrating AI risk governance, supply-chain assurance and simulation-driven resilience to future-proof Europe’s critical operations.
Stay secure,
The Make Sense SRL Team & CyberTania
