Tactics by Scattered Spider cybercriminals highlighted in joint advisory 

The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and international agencies July 29 released a joint advisory on recent tactics by the Scattered Spider cybercriminal group. The group, observed by federal agencies since November 2023, has members based in the U.S. and U.K. The group has targeted large companies and their IT help desks. Scattered Spider threat actors typically engage in data theft for extortion and also use ransomware variants once in a system to steal information, along with other tactics.  

“Scattered Spider often employs tactics like phishing, push bombing and subscriber identity module swap attacks to get credentials, bypass multifactor authentication and gain access to networks,” said Scott Gee, AHA deputy national advisor of cybersecurity and risk. “They have also impersonated company help desks to trick users into divulging credentials. These tactics serve as a reminder of the importance of training to recognize and stop these social engineering attacks. The fact that they are native English speakers can make their social engineering attacks more effective. There have been several arrests of group members recently, but their attacks persist and their tactics are evolving to evade detection. They are currently targeting Snowflake data storage solutions and stealing customer information.”  

For more information on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Scott Gee, AHA deputy national advisor of cybersecurity and risk, at sgee@aha.org. For the latest cyber and risk resources and threat intelligence, visit aha.org/cybersecurity.