U.US prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled criminal charges against five alleged members of the Scattered Spider, A loosely-knit community of hackers suspected of cracking. In dozens of US companies to steal confidential information and cryptocurrency.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada in Los Angeles said the defendants sent fake but genuine-looking mass text messages to employees’ cellphones warning them that their accounts would be disabled.

The hackers, then in their teens or 20s, allegedly directed links to employees to enter login information, allowing the hackers to steal millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from their employers and from the individuals’ accounts. .

The victims reportedly included at least 12 companies in the gaming, outsourcing, telecommunications and cryptocurrency sectors, among others.

Estrada’s office confirmed that the case involved a dismembered spider. No victims have been identified by name.

Security experts and officials have said that the Scattered Spider consists of small groups of people, including teenagers, who work on and off at specific jobs.

The group has been blamed for unusually aggressive cybercrimes, targeting large multinational companies as well as individual cryptocurrency investors.

Some experts have previously complained about an apparent failure by law enforcement agencies to crack down even though the identities of some of the suspects, including those in several Western countries, were known, industry insiders said. told Reuters last year.

That is changing now.

“The days of easy money and no results are over,” said Alison Nixon, chief research officer at cybersecurity company Unit 221B. “Guardians and law enforcement are now aggressively meeting this wave of cybercrime. Young people who have fallen into the culture of online crime must get out before they become the next target.

The defendants are Tyler Buchanan, 22, of Scotland; Ahmad al-Badawi, 23, of College Station, Texas; Joel Evans, 25, of Jacksonville, North Carolina; Evans Osibo, 20, of Dallas; and Noah Urban, 20, of Palm Coast, Florida.

Each was charged with two counts of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft, and Buchanan was also charged with wire fraud.

Investigators traced Buchanan through the domain registration records of phishing websites, registered under an account whose username included the name of the late actor Bob Sagitt.

Authorities said the suspects’ illegal activities spanned September 2021 and April 2023.

Scattered spider Especially discredited In September 2023, members of its community hacked and shut down the networks of casino operators Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts International, demanding huge ransoms. Caesars paid about $15 million to restore its network.

It was unclear if the five defendants were connected to Scattered Spider’s casino hacking.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment on specific victims. Caesars did not immediately return requests for comment. MGM said the defendants did not appear to be connected to the cyber attack against its network.

Evans was arrested in North Carolina on Tuesday. Urban has pleaded not guilty to 14 counts of fraud and conspiracy in a separate case in Florida.

Buchanan was arrested in June at an airport in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, as he tried to board a flight to Naples, Spanish authorities said at the time. A Justice Department spokesman said he was awaiting extradition from Spain.

A public defender representing Urban did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Attorneys for the other defendants could not be immediately identified.

Topics
USA
Cyber