A 22-year-old Briton was arrested in Palma de Mallorca in a joint effort between Spanish police and the FBI on suspicion of being the ringleader of a hacking group that targeted 45 companies and individuals in the United States.
The man was arrested at Palma Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Italy.
He is accused of hacking into corporate accounts and stealing important information, which allegedly allowed the group to gain access to multimillion-dollar funds. According to the Palma police, at one point he "controlled" $ 27 million worth of bitcoins.
For the first time, the alarm was raised by the FBI in Los Angeles after several companies were attacked. They turned to their Spanish colleagues for information about the 22-year-old suspect. Spanish police determined that he entered Spain via Barcelona at the end of May, and further investigation led to him ending up in Majorca.
A judge in Los Angeles issued a warrant for his arrest, which Palma police detectives executed as he was preparing to board a flight to Italy. The investigation is ongoing in both Spain and California. The police did not identify the 22-year-old criminal.
During his arrest, his laptop and mobile phone were seized.
• Video: https://murciatoday.com/video-fbi-t...A 22-year-old British,board a flight to Italy
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A 22-year-old British man arrested this week in Spain is believed to be the ringleader of the cyber crime group Scattered Spider, suspected of hacking Twilio, LastPass, DoorDash, Mailchimp and almost 130 other organizations over the past two years.
Spanish newspaper Murcia Today reports that the suspect was put on a wanted list by the FBI and arrested in Palma de Mallorca while trying to board a flight to Italy.
"He is accused of hacking into corporate accounts and stealing important information, which allegedly allowed the group to gain access to multimillion - dollar funds," writes Murcia Today. "According to the Palma police, at one point he controlled $ 27 million worth of bitcoins."
Twitter / X-account vx-underground, dedicated to cybercrime, reported that the arrested Briton was a SIM card changer under the pseudonym "Tyler". In a SIM-swapper attack, scammers transfer the victim's phone number to a device they control and intercept all text messages and phone calls sent to the victim, including one-time authentication codes or password reset links sent via SMS.
"He is known as a SIM-swapper and is allegedly associated with the infamous Scattered Spider group," vx - underground wrote on June 15, referring to a gang involved in costly data ransom attacks at MGM and Caesars casinos in Las Vegas last year.
Sources familiar with the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that the defendant is a 22-year-old resident of Dundee, Scotland, named Tyler Buchanan, also allegedly known by the nickname "tylerb" in Telegram chat channels dedicated to SIM-swapping.
In January 2024, U.S. authorities arrested another alleged member of Scattered Spider - 19-year-old Noah Michael Urban of Palm Coast, Florida - and charged him with stealing at least $ 800,000 from five victims between August 2022 and March 2023. Urban allegedly used the nicknames " Sosa "and" King Bob " and is believed to have been part of the same team that hacked Twilio and a number of other companies in 2022.
Investigators say members of Scattered Spider are part of a more disparate online cybercriminal community known as "The Com," where hackers from different clans loudly brag about high-profile cyber theft attacks that almost always start with social engineering - tricking people into giving up credentials that allow them to use their phone, email, or text messages. get remote access to companies ' internal networks.
One of the most popular SIM-swapping channels on Telegram maintains a frequently updated leaderboard of the most successful SIM-swappers, indexed by their alleged success in stealing cryptocurrency. Currently, Sosa is ranked 24th (out of 100) and Tylerb is ranked 65th.
• Source: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/06/alleged-boss-of-scattered-spider-hacking-group-arrested/
The man was arrested at Palma Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Italy.
He is accused of hacking into corporate accounts and stealing important information, which allegedly allowed the group to gain access to multimillion-dollar funds. According to the Palma police, at one point he "controlled" $ 27 million worth of bitcoins.
For the first time, the alarm was raised by the FBI in Los Angeles after several companies were attacked. They turned to their Spanish colleagues for information about the 22-year-old suspect. Spanish police determined that he entered Spain via Barcelona at the end of May, and further investigation led to him ending up in Majorca.
A judge in Los Angeles issued a warrant for his arrest, which Palma police detectives executed as he was preparing to board a flight to Italy. The investigation is ongoing in both Spain and California. The police did not identify the 22-year-old criminal.
During his arrest, his laptop and mobile phone were seized.
• Video: https://murciatoday.com/video-fbi-t...A 22-year-old British,board a flight to Italy
*****
A 22-year-old British man arrested this week in Spain is believed to be the ringleader of the cyber crime group Scattered Spider, suspected of hacking Twilio, LastPass, DoorDash, Mailchimp and almost 130 other organizations over the past two years.
Spanish newspaper Murcia Today reports that the suspect was put on a wanted list by the FBI and arrested in Palma de Mallorca while trying to board a flight to Italy.
"He is accused of hacking into corporate accounts and stealing important information, which allegedly allowed the group to gain access to multimillion - dollar funds," writes Murcia Today. "According to the Palma police, at one point he controlled $ 27 million worth of bitcoins."
Twitter / X-account vx-underground, dedicated to cybercrime, reported that the arrested Briton was a SIM card changer under the pseudonym "Tyler". In a SIM-swapper attack, scammers transfer the victim's phone number to a device they control and intercept all text messages and phone calls sent to the victim, including one-time authentication codes or password reset links sent via SMS.
"He is known as a SIM-swapper and is allegedly associated with the infamous Scattered Spider group," vx - underground wrote on June 15, referring to a gang involved in costly data ransom attacks at MGM and Caesars casinos in Las Vegas last year.
Sources familiar with the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that the defendant is a 22-year-old resident of Dundee, Scotland, named Tyler Buchanan, also allegedly known by the nickname "tylerb" in Telegram chat channels dedicated to SIM-swapping.
In January 2024, U.S. authorities arrested another alleged member of Scattered Spider - 19-year-old Noah Michael Urban of Palm Coast, Florida - and charged him with stealing at least $ 800,000 from five victims between August 2022 and March 2023. Urban allegedly used the nicknames " Sosa "and" King Bob " and is believed to have been part of the same team that hacked Twilio and a number of other companies in 2022.
Investigators say members of Scattered Spider are part of a more disparate online cybercriminal community known as "The Com," where hackers from different clans loudly brag about high-profile cyber theft attacks that almost always start with social engineering - tricking people into giving up credentials that allow them to use their phone, email, or text messages. get remote access to companies ' internal networks.
One of the most popular SIM-swapping channels on Telegram maintains a frequently updated leaderboard of the most successful SIM-swappers, indexed by their alleged success in stealing cryptocurrency. Currently, Sosa is ranked 24th (out of 100) and Tylerb is ranked 65th.
• Source: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/06/alleged-boss-of-scattered-spider-hacking-group-arrested/
