Espionage, sabotage and professional crime threats in the digital domain Digital sabotage or disruption can directly lead to damage to national security. The greatest threat in the digital field comes from criminals and state actors. Digitalisation has permeated into all levels of Dutch society and the economy. Consequently, our society has become fully dependent on digital resources. The undisturbed functioning of these resources is essential to vital processes in business and government, the earning power of companies and the daily lives of citizens. Incidents in recent years have made it clear that digital attacks can have a major impact on society and can lead to damage to physical and national security. The threat from professional criminals is growing and continues to develop. Successful criminal revenue models, such as ransomware continue to develop and are being expanded. The almost cost-free scalability of digital attacks is of particular interest to criminals. It is not only consumers who fall victim. Businesses and financial institutions are also targets for criminals. More complex methods of attack are becoming more widely available due to developments such as cybercrime as a service. As a result of this, more and more actors with limited knowledge and resources can carry out attacks that in some cases have direct social impact. State actors are structurally targeting Dutch government agencies and companies in the Netherlands for digital espionage.For instance, multinationals and research institutes in the de energy, Example: Cybercrime as a service and ransomware Cybercriminals do not by any means perform all steps in an attack themselves. They often buy services and expertise. An example of this is ransomware: a type of malicious software that blocks systems and/or the information they contain and only makes them accessible again against payment of a ransom. If a criminal wants to distribute ransomware they pay someone to develop it, for instance, and someone else to distribute the ransomware by email to millions of addressees. These services are provided very professionally and completely: from technical resources to infrastructure and helpdesk functionality. hightech, and chemical sectors have been victims of digital espionage. In these digital break-ins, terabytes of confidential information was stolen which represents a substantial economic value. State actors focus on digital economic and political espionage and on making preparations for digital sabotage. Not only are the number of countries that are developing digital attack capabilities increasing, the attacks that are carried out are also becoming increasingly complex. In addition, last year state actors also focused on digitally influencing democratic processes for geopolitical gain. To safeguard geopolitical interests, nations are investing in civilian and military cyber capabilities. A cyber secure Netherlands National Cyber Security Agenda | 11