Alleged Scattered Spider teen hacker indicted by US

The U.S. Justice Department announced that UK teen Thalha Jubair has been indicted over his purported role in the Scattered Spider threat operation, reports TechCrunch.

Multiple servers believed to have been operated by Jubair, which were sequestered by the FBI in July 2024, have facilitated the compromise of at least 120 organizations around the world, 47 of which were in the U.S., through social engineering attacks, according to the Justice Department. One of the servers had over 1 GB of data from a critical infrastructure entity, said the FBI, which also discovered a cryptocurrency wallet with nearly $36 million in the seized servers.

Such charges of computer hacking, extortion, and money laundering against Jubair follow his arrest alongside fellow teen Owen Flowers, both of whom had been accused by the UK's National Crime Agency of having breached Transport for London, the city's transportation authority, last year. Plans regarding Jubair's extradition remain uncertain.