Orange Warns of Cybersecurity Crisis

Orange Cyberdefense executives warned that cybercrime is rapidly converging with geopolitics. The shift is demanding a fundamental rethink of how governments and industry respond to escalating digital threats.

Charl van der Walt, head of security research at Orange Cyberdefence, said that today’s online environment marks a society-wide crisis, as more organisations suffer cyberattacks that “impact critical infrastructure, telecommunications, defence contractors, satellite systems and more. A key driver of this shift is the growing “balkanisation” of cyberspace, where technology ecosystems are fragmenting along geopolitical lines.

“Almost everything that we do in security, in some way, goes back to the US,” van der Walt said, referring to vulnerability disclosure, threat intelligence, law enforcement action, and standards. He added that only a handful of nations, primarily the US and China, can build full sovereign technology stacks, increasing Europe and smaller countries’ dependency on this supply chain. While Europe is attempting to rebalance through initiatives such as releasing its own vulnerability databases, Van der Walt said the asymmetry is huge.

Orange Cyberdefense CTO Vivien Mura added that AI is another pain point, stating that the technology is an opportunity, but it also introduces new risks. Attackers use AI to speed up the coding development of malware, shortening the time between vulnerability disclosure and exploitation. The report also found misuse risks linked to the rapid adoption of chatbots across organisations, which Mura said is expanding the attack surface.

Van der Walt noted attackers now operate within a dense web of interdependence where a single weakness can enable mass compromise. He said the dataset from the report reflects direct engagement with real-world attacks and defences. “One of the aspects in which we can truly be unique is that we are on the ground with clients… and this year, more than ever, to surface their voices.”

The latest Security Navigator threat detection research was based on analysis of 139,373 detected security incidents recorded over an 11-month period between October 2024 and August 2025. The report found that the number of distinct cybercrime groups has nearly tripled from 33 to 89 since 2020, driven in part by the commoditisation of cybercrime “as a service”, which has lowered the barrier to entry for attackers.

The company also recorded a 45% surge in cyber extortion victims between October 2024 and September 2025 compared to the previous research period, with two-thirds of victims now small and medium-sized businesses. Cyber extortion was heavily concentrated in sectors central to supply chains and essential services. Manufacturing and professional industries, alongside scientific and technical services, together accounted for nearly 40% of observed cases, followed by wholesale trade, construction, and healthcare.

For the first time, the report also included a law enforcement dataset covering activity between 2021 and mid-2025, showing global cooperation on the rise. Orange Cyberdefense chief Hugues Foulon called for accelerated collaborative efforts, stating the fight against organised cybercrime requires a global alliance, both public and private, to confront a threat that knows no borders.