FBI hopes to charge Scattered Spider hackers
The FBI has been chasing hackers from the infamous Scattered Spider threat group, hoping to charge them for their high-profile cyberattacks.
Scattered Spider, a unique group believed to be largely made up of people from the US and UK, was founded in May 2022 and first made waves in 2023 for hacking two of the largest casinos in US: Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts, the latter of which collaborated with ALPHV (BlackCat).
In both attacks, Scattered Spider was able to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) by using social engineering techniques to steal credentials.
In the cases of these attacks, Caesars disbursed approximately $15 million in ransom payments.
Now, talking to ReutersThe FBI has said it is seeking to charge the hackers behind the attacks.
“We are working to charge as many people as we can with criminal conduct, in this case, largely around the Computer Fraud and Abuse Law” said FBI Deputy Cyber Director Brett Leatherman in an interview with Reuters.
The FBI has had its eye on Scattered Spider since its origin in 2022, noting that it is particularly aggressive compared to other threat groups, threatening physical violence in some of its chats.
Additionally, it has demonstrated particular abilities to steal IT help desk identities to breach networks.
Leatherman also highlighted the uniqueness of the Scattered Spider hackers working with ALPHV, a Russian group.
“Often, we don’t see that mix of geographic hackers working together outside the confines of hacktivism, for example,” he said.
The group’s high number of high-profile and aggressive cyberattacks has drawn criticism for the lack of response from authorities, particularly as the group is based in the United States and the United Kingdom.
So far, only one individual known as a member of Scattered Spider has been arrested, Noah Urban, 19, of Florida, who was charged with wire fraud.
However, Leatherman said the FBI was working with private security companies to gather information on the group.
“This is an incredibly important group for which we must continue to look for opportunities for disruption,” he said.
“We have a certain burden of proof that we must meet to conduct law enforcement operations. And we are going in that direction as fast as we can.”
Leatherman said some of the members are minors, but that using state and local laws to take them down has been “historically very, very effective.”
