Scattered Spider

Threat Actor
117 incidents First seen 2026-06-23 Last seen 2026-10-28
Overview

Scattered Spider is a native English-speaking cybercriminal group active since at least 2022. The group initially targeted customer relationship management (CRM) providers, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, and telecommunications and technology companies before expanding in 2023 to gaming, hospitality, retail, managed service provider (MSP), manufacturing, and financial sectors. Scattered Spider relies heavily on social engineering, including impersonating IT and help-desk staff, to gain initial access, bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), and compromise enterprise networks. The group has adapted its tooling to evade endpoint detection and response (EDR) defenses and used ransomware for financial gain. Scattered Spider had expanded into hybrid cloud and identity environments, using help-desk impersonation and MFA bypass to obtain administrator access in Okta, AWS, and Office 365.

Threat ecosystem
Actors Malware Campaigns CVEs
Tap a node for a quick look · double-tap to open its profile
At a glance
peak priority 255 79 techniques 10 tools & malware in ATT&CK since 2023-07-05 updated 2026-09-11 · v3.0
Activity by month (incidents)
2025-052026-10
Sectors targeted
technology · 24finance · 23health · 22retail · 19hospitality · 12government · 11aviation · 10education · 10telecommunications · 9manufacturing · 7
Countries targeted
US · 66CA · 56GB · 50RU · 15DE · 14ES · 14AT · 12AU · 12CH · 12EE · 11FI · 11IT · 11
Origin
US · 37CA · 30GB · 26AU · 13RU · 13CN · 9
Kinds of incident
Law Enforcement · 29Data Breach · 26Ransomware & Extortion · 16Cyberattack (general) · 15Phishing & Social Engineering · 14Industry & Policy · 11
Techniques seen in incidents
Ransomware · 66Extortion · 57Phishing · 56Social Engineering · 52Data Breach · 19Impersonation · 17Data Leak · 15Reconnaissance · 13Exfiltration · 11Lateral Movement · 9T1588.001 - Malware · 9T1566 - Phishing · 8T1592.002 - Software · 8Defacement · 6
Related malware
Qilin · 8Rover · 7ALPHV · 4BlackCat · 4RansomHub · 4Neo-reGeorg · 2Agenda · 1Bumblebee · 1
Related CVEs
CVE-2026-35273 · 3CVE-2025-61882 · 2CVE-2022-25477 · 1CVE-2022-25478 · 1CVE-2022-25479 · 1CVE-2022-25480 · 1CVE-2023-52271 · 1CVE-2024-40431 · 1CVE-2024-40432 · 1CVE-2025-1055 · 1
ATT&CK techniques by tactic (79)
reconnaissance T1589 Gather Victim Identity Information T1598 Phishing for Information T1598.003 Spearphishing Link T1598.004 Spearphishing Voice
resource development T1583.001 Domains T1585.001 Social Media Accounts T1588.001 Malware T1588.002 Tool
initial access T1078 Valid Accounts T1078.004 Cloud Accounts T1133 External Remote Services
execution T1059.001 PowerShell T1059.004 Unix Shell T1204 User Execution
persistence T1078 Valid Accounts T1078.004 Cloud Accounts T1098 Account Manipulation T1098.003 Additional Cloud Roles T1133 External Remote Services T1136 Create Account T1543.002 Systemd Service T1556.006 Multi-Factor Authentication T1556.009 Conditional Access Policies
privilege escalation T1068 Exploitation for Privilege Escalation T1078 Valid Accounts T1078.004 Cloud Accounts T1098 Account Manipulation T1098.003 Additional Cloud Roles T1484.002 Trust Modification T1543.002 Systemd Service
credential access T1003.003 NTDS T1539 Steal Web Session Cookie T1552.001 Credentials In Files T1552.004 Private Keys T1555.005 Password Managers T1556.006 Multi-Factor Authentication T1556.009 Conditional Access Policies T1621 Multi-Factor Authentication Request Generation
discovery T1016 System Network Configuration Discovery T1018 Remote System Discovery T1069 Permission Groups Discovery T1069.002 Domain Groups T1082 System Information Discovery T1083 File and Directory Discovery T1087 Account Discovery T1087.002 Domain Account T1217 Browser Information Discovery T1538 Cloud Service Dashboard T1580 Cloud Infrastructure Discovery
lateral movement T1021.001 Remote Desktop Protocol T1021.004 SSH T1021.007 Cloud Services
collection T1074 Data Staged T1114 Email Collection T1114.003 Email Forwarding Rule T1213.003 Code Repositories T1213.005 Messaging Applications T1530 Data from Cloud Storage
command and control T1090 Proxy T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer T1219.002 Remote Desktop Software T1572 Protocol Tunneling
exfiltration T1041 Exfiltration Over C2 Channel T1567.002 Exfiltration to Cloud Storage
impact T1486 Data Encrypted for Impact T1490 Inhibit System Recovery T1657 Financial Theft
defense impairment T1484.002 Trust Modification T1553.002 Code Signing T1556.006 Multi-Factor Authentication T1556.009 Conditional Access Policies T1578.002 Create Cloud Instance T1685 Disable or Modify Tools
stealth T1006 Direct Volume Access T1070.008 Clear Mailbox Data T1078 Valid Accounts T1078.004 Cloud Accounts T1564.008 Email Hiding Rules T1684.001 Impersonation
Tools & malware it uses
BlackCatConnectWiseLaZagneMimikatzngrokRaccoon StealerRcloneTorVidarWarzoneRAT
Campaigns attributed to it
C0027
Incident timeline
2026-10-14
Ransomware gets personal: 'We-know-where-you-are kind of stuff'
2026-10-14
Ransomware gets personal: 'We-know-where-you-are kind of stuff'
2026-10-13
Union demands "Attack on certification documents, accounting for 3/10."
2026-10-07
Telegram Account Behind ASOS Rogue Notification Tied to Gaming Trading
2026-10-06
Social Engineering Detection Moves Into the Live Conversation
2026-09-25
What We Missed: Google Gemini Joins the AI Escape Party
2026-09-18
Early Scattered Spider member pleads guilty to cybercrime spree
2026-09-11
Cyberattack causes a flight delay? Airlines won’t owe you a hotel or meal
2026-09-01
Stronger Security Drives Ransomware Groups to Recruit From Within
2026-08-07
Inside the Modern SOC: The Identity Front Door
2026-08-06
Hedge fund cyberattacks tied to BlackFile-linked UNC6671 extortion group
2026-07-17
Leading members of Scattered Spider sentenced in UK to 66 months in jail
2026-07-16
Two Scattered Spider Members Sentenced to Prison Over £29 Million TfL Cyberattack
2026-07-16
Two Scattered Spider Hackers Get 5.5 Years Each for £29 Million TfL Hack
2026-07-16
Two Scattered Spider Members Sentenced to 5.6 Years Over TfL Cyberattack
2026-07-16
Brit Scattered Spider duo handed tickets to prison over Transport for London attack
2026-07-16
Scattered Spider members behind TfL hack get five years in prison
2026-07-16
Scattered Spider hackers sentenced to 5.5 years over £29 million Transport for London hack
2026-07-16
"Selfish Bravado" Behind TfL Cyber-Attack, Judge Says as Pair Jailed
2026-07-10
Hackers Use Fake Microsoft Entra Passkey Enrollment to Gain Microsoft 365 Access
2026-07-09
ThreatsDay: Cloud Bucket Hijacking, Windows LPE Chain, Global Fraud Bust + 17 More Stories
2026-07-07
Windows is watching: Anti-piracy tool fingers Scattered Spider suspect
2026-07-07
Scattered Spider’s Structure More Like a Cybercrime Collective Than a Unified Gang
2026-07-07
Court Filing Reveals Windows Device ID Helped FBI Trace Alleged Scattered Spider Hacker
2026-07-02
Alleged longstanding member of Scattered Spider extradited to US
2026-07-01
19-Year-Old Scattered Spider Suspect Extradited to Face U.S. Hacking Charges
2026-06-30
Hackers Steal Data of 4.38 Million Aflac Japan Customers
2026-06-29
Russian Hackers Accused of Destructive Cyber-Attack on Jaguar Land Rover
2026-06-25
ThreatsDay Bulletin: Smart TV Proxyware, 24-Year curl Bug, AI Crime Forums + 13 More Stories
2026-06-24
Securing the service desk: Why social engineering attacks keep succeeding
2026-06-23
Scattered Spider Hackers Plead Guilty on Day 1 of Trial
2026-06-23
Two Scattered Spider members plead guilty over cyberattack that crippled London transit
2026-06-23
2 Scattered Spider-Linked Hackers Plead Guilty Over £39M TfL Cyberattack