Business Outlook February 2025

2025-03-05

Omegapoint's round-up summarizes a selection of the security and cybersecurity events that have taken place over the past month.

Security events in the world

1. US imposes high tariffs on major trading partners¹²³

On February 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10% tariffs on China, with an exception for energy imports from Canada, where 10% would apply. These measures were mainly motivated by political reasons, to limit the flow of drugs - in particular fentanyl, and illegal immigrants to the United States. The countries concerned responded by planning countermeasures. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tells a press conference that they will impose 25% tariffs on US goods. Economists have warned that the tariffs could hurt growth and drive up inflation, as they are paid for primarily by importers who can pass the costs on to consumers.

2. US and Russia start negotiations on Ukraine⁴⁵⁶

On February 12, President Trump announced that he had a productive phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which they agreed to start talks to end the war in Ukraine. The US President said he had asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Advisor Michael Walz and US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to lead the negotiations.

The Kremlin confirms that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have spoken and says that the conversation lasted an hour and a half. It also confirms that the two leaders agreed to meet, Reuters reports.

3. European leaders' emergency meeting on security and Ukraine⁷⁸⁹

After US President Donald Trump initiated talks with Russia without involving Europe or Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency meeting in Paris on February 17. Leaders from France, Germany, the UK, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, representing the Nordic and Baltic countries, as well as representatives from the EU and NATO attended. Discussions focused on the possibility of sending a peacekeeping force to Ukraine and the need to strengthen Europe's defense capabilities in light of the uncertainty surrounding US support. The meeting revealed disagreement among countries on the deployment of European troops in Ukraine, but agreement on the need for increased defense funding and cooperation.

4. The changing US position at the UN on Ukraine¹⁰¹¹¹²

On 24 February, on the third anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States voted against a UN General Assembly resolution calling for a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine. For the first time since the start of the war, the United States and its European allies are on different sides at the UN.

5. President Zelenskyj's visit to the White House¹³¹⁴

On February 28, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House for a meeting with US President Donald Trump. The meeting, held in the Oval Office, was scheduled to discuss an agreement on Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for US aid. However, the meeting became tense and was abruptly canceled after Trump and Vice President JD Vance openly criticized Zelensky. This led to the Ukrainian delegation leaving the White House without any agreement being signed.

Cybersecurity events

1. Major hacker attack against crypto exchange Bybit¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

On February 21, 2025, the Dubai-based crypto exchange ByBit was hit by a major hacker attack in which $1.5 billion in Ethereum was stolen. CEO Ben Zhou writes on the platform X that a hacker took control of assets and sent them to an unidentified address. Bybit has said it can cover the losses. The attack is believed to be linked to a North Korean hacker group, according to the FBI.

2. Arrests of key people behind ransomware groups¹⁸

On February 11, Europol announced the arrest of key individuals behind the Phobos/8Base ransomware-as-a-service in an international cybercrime operation. These individuals, all Russian nationals, are suspected of using a variant of the Phobos ransomware to extort high ransoms from victims across Europe and beyond. At the same time, 27 servers linked to the criminal network were taken down.

3. US imposes sanctions on hosting provider for ransomware¹⁹²⁰

On February 11, the United States imposed sanctions on a hosting provider Zservers that provided services to ransomware group LockBit. The company Zservers offers so-called bulletproof hosting - a service that allows cybercriminals to evade law enforcement while renting IP addresses, servers and domains to spread malware, create botnets and perform other tasks related to fraud and cyberattacks. Sanctions aim to disrupt the infrastructure used by cybercriminals to carry out attacks.

4. Approximately 1500 customers affected by Nordnet's IT problems²¹²²

In February, the online broker Nordnet was hit by serious IT problems that affected customers throughout the Nordic region. The incident meant that some customers, when logging in, gained access to other users' account information, including share and fund holdings. This led to Nordnet temporarily shutting down its services to investigate and fix the problem. Approximately 1,500 customers were affected, of which about 200 in Sweden, 500 in Finland, 500 in Denmark and 350 in Norway. According to Nordnet, the problems were due to an internal software component linked to the login function, with no signs of external influence or cyberattack.

5. Government's proposed data retention law - Signal considers leaving the Swedish market²³

In February 2025, the encrypted messaging app Signal announced that it is considering leaving the Swedish market if the government's proposed data retention law is adopted. The bill, which is scheduled to be considered in Parliament in March 2026, would require messaging services such as Signal and WhatsApp to store all communications that take place through their platforms. Signal's chief executive, Meredith Whittaker, expressed concern that such a requirement would mean breaking the end-to-end encryption that is central to Signal's service. She emphasized that the introduction of so-called "backdoors" would undermine the company's entire architecture and compromise user privacy.

The purpose of the bill is to give law enforcement authorities, such as the Security Service and the police, the opportunity to subsequently access the message history of persons suspected of crimes. However, the Swedish Armed Forces have expressed criticism of the proposal. They have recently urged their personnel to use Signal to reduce the risk of interception and argue that the bill could introduce vulnerabilities that could be exploited by unauthorized third parties.

Reference list

Insights

Business Outlook February 2025

Security events in the world

Cybersecurity events

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