In recent weeks, Europe has faced an unprecedented wave of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. After perpetrators disabled refrigeration equipment in hundreds of French supermarkets, blood transfusion services became the target: due to cooling failures, donor supplies were rendered unusable. In an interview with Euronews, ethical hacker Marco Di Filippo from the company Whitelisthackers explained how cybersecurity specialists attempt to identify vulnerabilities before criminals can exploit them, and why, in his assessment, the probability of becoming a victim of a cyberattack is one in two.
"We have never seen this scale even in a whole year"
"Over the last two weeks, we have faced an unusually large number of high-profile cases; we haven't seen this scale before, not even in a whole year," Di Filippo says. His work during this period includes vulnerabilities in the AfD-Leaks system, the infrastructure of the fintech company Revolut, the scripting language PHP used for many websites, as well as attacks on refrigerated warehouses. According to the "Bundeslagebild Cybercrime 2025" report by the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the total economic damage from cybercrime in 2025 amounted to 202.4 billion euros.
The Berlin attack: 30 bitcoin ransom and 1.4 million files in the darknet
Di Filippo pays special attention to the cyberattack on the Berlin state network in August 2026. According to him, the attack could have been prevented. The criminals demanded a ransom of 30 bitcoins—approximately two million euros—however, the Berlin Senate firmly refused to pay. As a result, 1.4 million confidential files were published on the darknet. The cause was a vulnerability in the digital system exploited by the ransomware group Rhysida. The attack method was dubbed ClickFix: the victim was lured to a website and asked to confirm they were a human by typing a certain key combination, pasting a command, and pressing Enter. "Thus, the person actually opened the door for the attackers themselves," comments Di Filippo, comparing it to a letter where a burglar asks to leave the door ajar to walk straight to the safe.
The human factor and the privilege problem
From the Berlin case, the expert draws two conclusions. First, the human factor played a key role: the user executed the malicious command. Second, this user should not have had the permissions that allowed such a large-scale attack. "We deal with such stories every day; sometimes you can only shake your head," Di Filippo states. He emphasizes that the probability of suffering from a hacker attack is one in two, yet society still underestimates this threat. "People are much more afraid of residential burglaries or thunderstorms. However, the probability of being struck by lightning is only one in 200,000," the expert notes.
Convenience versus security: a systemic problem
Di Filippo notes with regret that today security is not a priority in product development. "Many products are sold where convenience is put at the forefront," he explains. Smart homes with light and heating controls from anywhere, internet-connected refrigerators in supermarkets for centralized management—all these make life easier but not necessarily safer. "This is exactly where we have a gap in education today. By 'us', I mean everyone, that is, anyone who has never learned to recognize threats," says the expert. In his opinion, one must start with education: those who have never faced the risk of a hacker attack do not perceive themselves as a potential target.
"Ghost Pairing" and lessons from other countries
Among the current threats, Di Filippo highlights the "Ghost Pairing" method, which the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) warned about in early 2026. In some cases, it is enough to click a link in an SMS or WhatsApp message, verify one's identity—and attackers gain access to personal correspondence, media files, and contacts. The BSI recommends critically evaluating incoming messages and enabling two-factor authentication. The expert also points to India, where alongside technological development, great attention is paid to awareness-raising: posters about cybercrime are placed everywhere in the subway, forming a basic understanding of digital threats among the population.
