Europol is enhancing its response to “The Com,” a dangerous online ecosystem that allegedly recruits and manipulates minors into cyberattacks, extortion schemes, sexual exploitation, and violent offenses.

This initiative, called Project COMPASS, brings together law enforcement agencies from EU Member States and partner countries to prevent, detect, and investigate activities linked to the network.

The Com, short for “Community,” is not a single organization with a central command structure. Instead, it operates as a loose and decentralized network of subgroups across social media, messaging applications, gaming services, music platforms, and other digital spaces.

This structure complicates investigations, as members can quickly move between platforms, use anonymous accounts, and form new groups after enforcement actions. According to Europol, the network specifically targets minors and other vulnerable individuals.

Europol Targets Teen Hacker Network

Victims may be groomed, coerced, or blackmailed into creating explicit material, harming themselves, targeting others, abusing animals, damaging property, or participating in cybercrime. Criminals often record or collect this material and use it to maintain control over their victims.

One component, known as Cyber Com, focuses on digital attacks against online commerce and infrastructure. Its activities may include network intrusions, credential theft, ransomware deployment, and disruption of online services.

Another branch, Offline Com, encourages property damage, physical violence, and acts associated with a violent nihilistic worldview.

A third element, often referred to as “(S)extortion Com,” is linked to the coercion of minors into online and offline sexual crimes, self-harm, suicide-related content, and violence against individuals or animals.

The network exploits fear, isolation, and a victim’s desire for belonging to maintain pressure and expand its reach. Europol highlighted group 764 as one of the most notorious communities associated with this threat landscape.

Active since at least 2021, the group is accused of using aggressive recruitment and grooming methods to push young people toward creating explicit content and committing harmful acts. This content can then be traded, shared among members, or used for blackmail.

Authorities have warned that some groups within this ecosystem have increasingly overlapped with violent extremist communities, including networks associated with satanic and accelerationist ideologies. This convergence raises the risk that online coercion and cybercrime could escalate into serious offline violence.

Project COMPASS supports active investigations involving counter-terrorism, child sexual abuse material, and organized crime units. The project also facilitates intelligence sharing, data sprints, operational cooperation, and prevention strategies among participating countries.

So far, the initiative has reported four victims safeguarded, 303 arrests, 626 identified or partially identified victims, and 179 identified or partially identified perpetrators.

Europol has also conducted nine joint awareness-raising activities to help families, schools, platforms, and investigators recognize the warning signs of online grooming and coercion.

Project COMPASS reflects a growing international effort to disrupt harmful online communities before their digital abuse escalates into cyber extortion, exploitation, or physical violence.

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