FBI official sheds more light on Scattered Spider operation

Nearly 1,000 individuals, many of whom are not directly related, were noted by FBI Cyber Division Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran to be part of the prolific hacking collective Scattered Spider, also known as 0ktapus and UNC3944, which was behind last year's attacks against Okta and MGM Resorts, CyberScoop reports.

Such extensive attacks by Scattered Spider, which emerged from "the Com" online community, have made the hacking group the third leading cybersecurity threat behind China and the foreign intelligence agency of Russia, said Vorndran at the Sleuthcon conference.

Scattered Spider's threat has prompted other researchers to urge equal resources and attention between cybercrime and advanced persistent threat operations.

"In biasing ourselves towards APT versus e-crime, we create a false dichotomy that pushes resources, attention, and support to areas that don’t always align with the greatest organizational risks. Your average organization has a greater threat from cybercrime than government-backed actors," said Proofpoint Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst Selena Larson.