Ransomware continues to pose one of the most serious and persistent cyber threats to institutions and businesses across the Western Balkans. In response to this growing challenge, the Western Balkans Cyber Capacity Centre (WB3C) is hosting a two-day conference that brings together national authorities, law enforcement agencies, EU institutions, the private sector and international experts to examine the evolving threat landscape and identify practical paths forward.

The discussions will follow the structure of the latest published agenda (available below), covering operational, legal, technical and strategic dimensions of ransomware response.

A diverse regional and European expert community

The conference brings together a wide range of contributors, reflecting the cross-sectoral nature of ransomware resilience:

• National cybersecurity authorities, CSIRTs and police high-tech crime units from Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and North Macedonia
• European and international law enforcement institutions, including Europol and France’s Anti-Cybercrime Office (OFAC)
• Judicial representatives and prosecutors from France, Serbia, Montenegro and EUROJUST
• Private-sector leaders in cybersecurity, including technical experts, CISOs, SOC practitioners and incident-response specialists from across the region and the EU
• Academic and research communities specialising in cybercrime, digital forensics and AI-enabled cyber threats

Key themes across the two-day programme

The agenda examines several critical aspects of the ransomware ecosystem:

• Mapping current ransomware tactics and regional threat activity
• Understanding criminal group structures, operational models and international cooperation needs
• Lessons learned from high-profile investigations and successful dismantling of ransomware groups
• Comparative legal frameworks and the challenges of jurisdiction, prosecution and evidence handling
• Real-world case studies from organisations that have managed and recovered from ransomware attacks
• Technical and legal issues surrounding cryptocurrency tracing and seizure
• The emerging role of AI in enhancing both attacker capabilities and defensive measures
• Operational insights from securing major international events, including Paris 2024
• The complexities of negotiating under pressure during active ransomware incidents

Through panels, keynotes, and practitioner-to-practitioner exchanges, the event aims to deepen understanding of how ransomware is evolving, where regional vulnerabilities lie, and what coordinated action is needed to strengthen resilience.

WB3C is committed to strengthening cybersecurity capacity across the Western Balkans by connecting national stakeholders with European expertise and by translating insights into practical improvements for public authorities, critical service operators and the wider digital ecosystem.

Access the latest agenda below.

We just closed a three-day training delivered by two excellent experts from GATEWATCHER, 🛡 Philippe G. and Morgan P. — a global leader in Network Detection and Response (NDR) and Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI). Their support helped bring some of the most advanced NDR and AI-driven investigation practices directly to our local ecosystem.
Over the three days, participants worked hands-on with Gatewatcher’s technology: understanding how the platform detects threats in real time, how to configure it properly, and how AI is reshaping modern cyber-investigation. The sessions were practical, intense and grounded in real SOC challenges.
Our learners came from both private (Čikom) and public sector (Podgorica) SOC teams including Mladen Bukilic, Bojan Nenadic, Bogdan Scekic, Denis Reković, Andja Budimir, Zvonko Popović, Tamara Bulatovic, Branko Sibalic and Balša Božović.

Their engagement and teamwork made the training genuinely productive, the kind of environment where people learn from each other as much as from the instructors.
This initiative was also made possible thanks to Gilles Schwoerer, Head of WB3C, who brought Gatewatcher and our local companies together to enable this exchange of expertise.

Last week, WB3C participated in the 6th Regional Cybersecurity Conference organized by the Montenegrin NGO Secure, contributing to one of the key discussions of this event: “The impact of AI on cybercrime and law enforcement.” The panel was moderated by our Senior Project Manager, Vanja Madzgalj MBE, and brought together perspectives from the public sector, private sector and the international community supporting capacity building in the region.
A central issue emerged throughout the conversation: as organizations increasingly automate their defences, what happens to the human experts? With AI performing threat analysis, pattern detection and other complex tasks, the role of cybersecurity professionals is not disappearing, it is changing. Their new value lies in oversight, critical judgment, strategic decision-making and the ability to understand and manage AI-enabled systems. This raises another pressing question: while organizations are encouraged to adopt AI, how can they protect their sensitive data from the very risks that AI tools themselves may introduce?

The discussion underscored that AI is transforming both sides of the cyber battlefield. Criminals are using it to scale attacks with unprecedented sophistication, while defenders are leveraging it to detect, analyse and respond to threats faster than ever before. This race for the upper hand demands continuous training and upskilling on all fronts: across government, critical infrastructure, law enforcement and society at large.
Panelists Gilles Schwoerer (WB3C), Bojan Miranović (Police Directorate of Montenegro) and Ivan Stankovic (Čikom) highlighted what this means in practice: how law enforcement handles AI-driven cybercrime, the types of training and support frontline teams need, the institutions most at risk and why cross-border and cross-institution cooperation is becoming indispensable.
For WB3C, these insights reinforce the importance of our mission. As AI accelerates both opportunity and risk, the Western Balkans will need strong skills, trusted partnerships and resilient institutions to stay ahead of emerging threats. WB3C remains committed to supporting that effort across the region.