Scattered Spider Attacks - Four Arrested
British police have made arrests for the cyber attack that caused major disruption at Marks & Spencer (M&S), the Co-op, the luxury goods store Harrods and more recently the Qantas airline.
Four people were detained at their homes in the early hours of Thursday 10th July 2025 and their electronic devices were taken away. by the police. They were apprehended on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.
One of the suspects is a 19-year-old man from Latvia and the rest are from the UK. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has said that a 20-year-old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males, aged between 17 and 19, were arrested in London and the West Midlands. The cyber criminals deployed ransomware affecting the company's IT networks making them unusable, unless a ransom was paid.
The chairman of M&S, Archie Norman, recently told UK Parliment MPs that it felt like the hack was aimed at business destruction and that M&S estimates it will cost £300m in lost profits.
M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November. The cyber attack on Harrods is though to have had less impact on its operations.
In expert comment, the CEO of HackerOne, Kara Sprague, said “When we fail to create visible, ethical pathways for curious young people with cybersecurity talent, some will take the wrong route, with life-changing consequences... Around the world, outdated laws and a lack of awareness leave too many aspiring hackers without a clear pathway to an ethical outlet for their talent. This gap harms individuals and deprives us of the talent we need in today’s threat landscape."
The use of AI to deploy new forms of cyber attack is lowering the barrier to entry for attackers while increasing complexity for defenders.
"Now more than ever, we need to meet the next generation of hackers where they are with programs, policies, and incentives that channel curiosity into contribution rather than criminal behaviour." Sprague concludes.
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Image: Ideogram
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