Brussels – Europe and the Arabs

During their meeting today, Monday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, European Union foreign ministers will attempt to formulate a strategy for handling a scenario in which EU or NATO citizens are killed in a Russian "hybrid" attack—a possibility experts warn is becoming increasingly likely. This information was shared by two European diplomats with *Playbook*, the Brussels-based European edition of the American publication *Politico*.
Highlighting the gravity of the situation, one diplomat likened the scenario to "Russian roulette," stating: "Given the scope and nature of Russian maneuvers, casualties are bound to occur sooner or later," adding that "the fact that there have been no victims so far is sheer luck." Warnings regarding hybrid attacks have sparked intense diplomatic activity within the EU; a senior European diplomat reported that envoys are set to meet this week in the Council’s secure meeting room—known as "the bunker"—to discuss this threat.
Hybrid attacks constitute a military and political strategy that employs a mix of conventional and unconventional methods to harm or destabilize an adversary without escalating to the level of direct, declared military warfare.
The danger lies in the fact that these attacks are often carried out covertly, making it difficult to directly attribute responsibility to a specific actor. They involve methods such as:
Cyberattacks: Targeting critical infrastructure such as power grids, hospitals, banks, and government institutions. Information warfare and disinformation: Spreading fake news via social media to inflame political and social divisions and erode public trust in institutions.
Economic and energy pressure: Using natural resources (such as gas and oil) or trade as tools for political leverage and coercion.
Sabotage and security operations: Such as targeting undersea communication cables, espionage, or carrying out covert acts of sabotage.
Exploiting migration crises: Pushing large numbers of migrants toward the borders of rival nations to trigger internal humanitarian and security crises.
The primary objective of these attacks is to exhaust and destabilize the adversary from within, while keeping the level of escalation below the threshold of "total war" to avoid a direct military response.
This comes as a cyberwar has erupted on the dark web after a notorious criminal gang seized control of a major rival's site.
According to media reports from Brussels, an open conflict has broken out on the dark web between two notorious criminal gangs. The extortion group "Shine Hunters" claims to have taken over the website and digital infrastructure of its rival, "Clop."
According to the Belgian newspaper *Nieuwsblad*, "Shine Hunters" stated on Friday that it had discovered a security vulnerability in "Clop's" software, enabling it to gain extensive control over the operation. In an online chat with Reuters, the group declared, "We are practically their masters now." The "Clop" website was inaccessible on Sunday. The day before, a saved screenshot showed a message reading: "Domain seized by Shine Hunters." Clop did not respond to requests for comment.
Two cybersecurity experts believe the conflict is genuine. Brandon Parsons of Ascent Solutions states, "Disputes between dark web gangs do occur." Joe Rozon of SpyCloud describes this public cyber-attack by one criminal group against another as exceptional. The feud reportedly stems from a previously unknown security vulnerability in Oracle’s E-Business Suite software. Such vulnerabilities—known as "zero-day exploits"—are highly valuable because hackers can exploit them before security teams can develop a fix. The ShinyHunters group claims to have discovered the vulnerability first but alleges that Clop stole it last year.
According to a Google analyst, Clop exploited this vulnerability to steal data from more than a hundred companies. Subsequently, the Russian-speaking group allegedly threatened to expose the identities of several ShinyHunters members. In turn, ShinyHunters threatened to reveal internal information regarding Clop.