Happy New Year!

It’s been yet another pivotal year for Revontulet and for the safety industry. Political turbulence, geopolitical tension, and global conflict color our world. Yet, amidst it all, we have remained steadfast in our mission - to build a safer world for all.

To that end, in 2025, we produced more than 80.000 words of intelligence reporting, strategy, and policy documents for our clients. We’ve delivered the most comprehensive dataset on a single terrorist organization to date, covering 622 nodes and 2165 relationships built on our proprietary graph database, which form the backbone of our services.

In 2025, we tackled challenging projects spanning electoral integrity in Canada, evolving terrorist threats, and the implications of evolving policy and law. Together with clients in the tech industry, we focused on implementing the Digital Services Act, the Terrorist Content Online Regulation, and other international frameworks to increase online safety. We also explored the implications for the banking and financial services industries of legislation focused on anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism, and preventing financial crimes such as fraud.

We investigated the hybridization of threats in the intersection between terrorism and organized crime, the nexus between child safety online and online harms tied to terrorist and violent extremist content and behaviours. We studied the dynamics of gender and radicalization, understanding the role of misogyny both as core to the belief systems of extremist organizations around the world and as a key component of recruitment funnels. We mapped global extremist groups from Uzbekistan to Canada, from Australia to Brazil, spanning ideologies, religions, languages, and cultures.

Throughout the year, we presented findings at the AI Action Summit in Paris, the InCyber forum, the OSCE, the EU Knowledge Hub, the InHope summit in Washington, D.C., and at home in Norway. In summer, we had the privilege of inviting global leaders in the online safety and governance sector to the United Nations Internet Governance Forum in Oslo, where our CEO and founder chaired a session of the parliamentary track. In October, we took part in the Oslo Innovation Week.

Amidst global instability, we have focused on our roots and on building a firm foundation in Norway from which we can grow. In turbulent times, Norway offers a rock-solid environment and a stable political and legal climate, with a focus on preserving rights and liberty, allowing us to focus on what matters. While the challenges facing our sector have been felt, this has allowed us to remain fiercely independent yet innovative as we continue our work with global partners.

Norway and the Nordics provide us not only with political and economic stability but also a unique vantage point from which to tackle global challenges together with our clients. The region is renowned for its role in international trade, multilateral governance, and diplomacy, with a focus on discretion, clarity, and quality. Qualities we seek to embody in our work every day.

Bjørn Ihler speaking at the Smart Innovation Norway partner conference. Photo by Mari Kristine Buckholm.

To further advance our establishment as a company with global reach in Norway, we joined Smart Innovation Norway's portfolio in November. In late November, it was a privilege to take the stage at their Partner conference to present some of our work on Terrorgram, including how we had tracked them, supported arrests, and prevented attacks tied to the group. Drawing on U.S. data, we explored the relationship between the evolution of the group and the number of intentional sabotage and attacks on the U.S. power grid, revealing concerning vulnerabilities in the shared infrastructure we all rely on.

Infrastructure is essential. By undermining the abilities of bad actors to abuse infrastructure, we render them incapable of operating. By protecting infrastructure, we protect civilians and the industries on which we and our economies depend. 

In early December, both New Zealand and Canada finally designated Terrorgram as a Terrorist entity, giving new tools and leverage to continue tackling the threats posed by what remains of the group and those inspired by it on a global scale.

Timeline of the evolution of Terrorgram. Slide by Revontulet.

As a last hurrah before the holidays, Bjørn Ihler presented our work and evolution as a company on the podcast “Problemløserne” (the problem solvers) hosted by Abelia - the national union for knowledge and technology companies in Norway. Ihler covered his trajectory from surviving the attack on Utøya island in 2011, his work with Kofi Annan and the Obama Foundation, and how, today, Revontulet uses and develops technology and intelligence solutions to detect and prevent terrorist threats.

In 2026, there will be more political turbulence, more elections, more regulation, more online harms, and greater hybridization of threats worldwide. Electoral integrity and candidate safety will be essential to preserve democracy. Understanding the relationships and threats among state actors, non-state actors, extremist groups, cybercrime, and organized crime will be crucial to staying ahead of the game and to protect the safety of nations, communities, and companies alike.

As we ring in the new year, we at Revontulet stand ready to help clients, old and new, to keep a finger on the pulse of the threat landscape, remain compliant, understand how risks to critical infrastructure poses a threat to us all, how hybridization of global threats affect you, and explore what can be done to keep yourself, your interests and your community safe.

Please reach out to us to learn more about how we can help you.

Now all that remains for 2025 is to sincerely thank you all for the year that has passed, and from all of us, to wish you a Happy New Year!