A group of teenage hackers known as Scattered Spider has disrupted major
corporations through phishing, SIM swapping, and insider social engineering to infiltrate
corporate networks. These hackers operate from the US and UK, bypassing traditional
cybercrime stereotypes as lone foreign actors. Their attacks have caused multimillion-dollar
losses and exposed private customer data, sparking corporate and law enforcement concern.
Tyler Buchanan, a 22-year-old from Dundee, was among seven individuals charged in the US
for involvement with the group. Scattered Spider’s operations have targeted major companies
like Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts. The group’s use of Russian-developed tools like
DragonForce suggests collaborations with other cybercriminal entities. Experts highlight the
group’s poor operational security and increasingly extortion-focused tactics as businesses resist
paying ransoms, instead relying on robust data backups.
