Warsaw, Tallinn, Prague and the digital agenda of central and eastern Europe. Coverage from Continental Brief.
Oleksii Lytvynenko, 44, received a four-year sentence for his work as a hacker and developer in the Conti ransomware operation, which compromised over 1,000 organisations globally before collapsing in 2022.
A flurry of deals across emerging Europe includes a major acquisition by a European legal AI platform, a €135 million fund close backing CEE companies, and a record-breaking funding round for French AI firm Mistral.
A cluster of startups spanning biotech, property management and compliance infrastructure have secured millions in backing, with one Israeli-Dutch AI firm opening a regional hub in Zagreb.
The SHARE Foundation has documented at least 14 cases of advanced spyware deployment against opposition figures in Serbia since early 2026, marking the country's most significant surveillance operation on record.
Tallinn's annual summer school brought together diplomats and officials in June 2026 to discuss cybersecurity's role in international relations and strengthen cross-border cooperation on digital governance.
Vii Studio is registered in Wrocław, works with an almost entirely remote team and has built several recent public projects for businesses serving the Ukrainian market. Its setup shows what cross-border digital service delivery looks like well below the scale of large platforms.
The Bundestag has approved legislation for Germany's EUDI Wallet implementation, though security experts and privacy advocates say the approach leaves vulnerabilities and lacks key privacy protections.
LMU Munich is probing a cyberattack that compromised sensitive enrollment data belonging to over 52,000 students, potentially including financial and health insurance information.
New volumes on Peter Thiel and Elon Musk reveal how tech billionaires are bankrolling political movements and building infrastructure that concentrates power in their hands, raising urgent questions about resistance and democratic renewal.