Words of Wisdom

Scattered Spider is back.

Who the heck is Scattered Spider Ross?

Remember the Las Vegas tech outages that Cost MGM over 100 million in 2023? That was Scattered Spider. The group has been operating for years and had gone silent after a series of arrest in 2024 but has slipped back onto the scene over the past few weeks with a series of retail company hacks in the UK.

The reemergence of this group has left law enforcement frustrated. One of the individuals involved in the investigation is quoted by the WSJ "“Obviously what we’re doing isn’t working,”. “It’s gone on for far too long.”

Groups like Scattered Spider are by their very nature decentralized. Members are often spread across several countries and use various techniques to obfuscate their identities and online activities. This makes traditional law enforcement difficult to apply and has therefore necessitated the creation of specialized divisions within existing organizations to target and track cyber crime perpetrators.

All of that being said, it does not appear that as of yet there has been a notable reduction in cyber incidents for many years. In fact regardless of source, there has been an increase in the volume and severity of cyber attacks year over year for many years running. This is not to say that law enforcement isn't working their collective tails off innovating and making arrest because they are. We are however, still riding a rising wave of crime that the collective professional and personal strata has not yet gotten ahead of. That being said, it is the responsibility of each individual and company to take the security of the data seriously. If we do so, the load on law enforcement will be statistically reduced and there may be a chance over time for the efforts of our agencies at war to gain ground and even get the upper hand.

#HardentheTarget #StayVigilant #CyberResilience #CyberWar #HIPAA #CriticalInfrastructure #DoYourPart