Trust is at the heart of our growing online ecosystem. Every time we click a link, enter a password, or visit a website, we are placing faith in unseen systems to be legitimate, secure, and protective of our data. It is this invisible fabric of trust that allows the digital world to function. Yet the very same digital pathways of trust are increasingly being manipulated and exploited by organized criminal actors. The report Clicks, Links & Tricks, Oh My! How Serious Organized Criminals Exploit Digital Trust Pathways examines how domains, URLs, and web traffic systems, which were designed to sustain the Internet in confidence, are being exploited to sustain serious and organized crime.
This is part of UNICRI’s broader Cybercrime and Online Harms workstream, which seeks to bridge the gap between complex technical threats and practical, human-centered solutions, ensuring that the digital ecosystem remains safe and secure, and not a vector of exploitation for malicious actors. Through this workstream, we have explored the hidden infrastructures of the dark web, encrypted communication platforms and the exploitation of Cybercrime-as-a-Service markets by terrorists; we have examined the human impact of cybercrime on access to justice in Africa by centering the experiences of victims; and we have mapped the abuse of digital technologies by violent extremist groups across South America, Africa, and Asia. More recently, we have broken new ground, filling important gaps in our understanding of video gaming and online harms by looking at the intersection with violent extremism in Africa and Southeast Asia. Collectively, this corpus of knowledge illustrates both the diversity and the interconnectedness of online threats and provides UNICRI with a foundation for its work in this increasingly important space.
As with those efforts, this report is not only about threats. It is about resilience. By gathering insights from global research and practitioner engagement, it reinforces the importance of anticipating risks, building capacity, and fostering multistakeholder cooperation. Safeguarding digital trust is not a technical task alone: it is a collective responsibility that requires governments, law enforcement, industry, and civil society to act together. At UNICRI, we are committed to advancing this dialogue and supporting concrete solutions so that the Internet continues to be a driver of inclusion, innovation, and security, and not a lawless space for exploitation.
The report is conducted in collaboration with Forescout Technologies, Inc., and it will be launched at the Global Cybersecurity Forum, Annual Meeting 2025, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Leif Villadsen, Acting Director of UNICRI