Skip to main content

Scattered Spider Member Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison

A member of the notorious hacker group Scattered Spider, 20-year-old American Noah Urban, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday. Urban pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including fraud, theft, and targeting cryptocurrency victims and companies.

According to Bloomberg, Urban is the first member of the hacker group to be sentenced. The ruling was handled by US District Judge Harvey Schlesinger in a courtroom in Jacksonville, Florida.

Urban was arrested in January 2024 in Florida. His lawyer, Kathryn Sheldon, said in court that her client had made “some very poor decisions as a teenager,” and had been influenced by older co-conspirators.

The hacks in which Urban participated affected victims who lost retirement savings, IVF fertility funds, and other assets, leaving many struggling financially after the thefts.

According to Jacksonville’s news station News4JAX, Urban must also pay $13 million in restitution to 59 victims in the case.

Urban has been accused of stealing at least $800,000 in cryptocurrency from five victims in the Florida case — the hacker faces another federal case in California. He used SIM swapping tactics, a type of cyberattack in which the hacker tricks a mobile carrier into transferring a number to another SIM card under their control, allowing them to bypass two-factor authentication, receive calls and texts, and access the victim’s accounts.

The hacker was also known by different aliases, such as Gustavo Fring, a reference to the show Breaking Bad, and King Bob, a nod to the Minions movie, and has been linked to the Scattered Spider hacker group, also known as 0ktapus and UNC3944.

According to cybersecurity experts, members of Scattered Spider are based in different countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. Last year, another member of the group, a 22-year-old British national, was arrested in Spain.

Just a few weeks ago, the FBI issued a warning about Scattered Spider, citing its connection to the recent disruptions in the aviation industry. The gang has also been linked to aggressive campaigns targeting U.S. companies with ransomware attacks.



See TessMore Internet Business Must-Reads
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Only 1 in 10 NFT Owners Have Never Experienced a Scam

A new survey from PrivacyHQ reveals 90% or nine out of 10 respondents experienced an NFT scam. This level of uncertainty is cause for concern for a relatively new marketplace that is generating billions of dollars. Only 1 in 10 NFT Owners Have Never Experienced a Scam The PrivacyHQ survey spoke to 1,008 people in the U.S. who are actively investing in and own NFTs. And according to the report, there are some horror stories and great lessons to be learned. The key takeaways from the survey are: Less than half of NFT owners feel their NFTs are secure Two out of 3 respondents said they had panic-sold NFTs in the past Nine out of 10 respondents had experienced an NFT scam Half of the respondents had lost access to their NFTs at some point When it comes to NFT scams there were multiple ways in which buyers were scammed. Topping the list of the most common scams experienced by these respondents starts out with the NFT provider shutting down or changing their URL at 44.8%. Next is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thousands Still Available in COVID Relief with These Small Business Grants

Building improvements can be a major expense for small businesses. And many had to make certain changes to navigate the past few years. Restaurants set up outdoor patios. Historic properties restored their storefronts. And offices added energy efficient features. Many businesses also have improvement projects planned for 2022. Luckily, many small business grant programs across the country make these projects more attainable, thus improving the customer experience and the community at large. Here are some current small business grant opportunities for building improvements, pandemic recovery, and more. Raleigh Building-Up Fit Grant Raleigh’s Small Business Development department is launching a new grant opportunity for local businesses. The Building-Up Fit Grant offers matching reimbursement funds up to $25,000 for eligible renovation projects. Businesses with 50 employees or less can apply for grants to cover projects that significantly improve the appearance and value of the pro...
Post a Comment
Read more

openSNP Shutters Over Privacy and Authoritarianism Concerns

OpenSNP, a long-running open-source genetic data platform, is shutting down after citing growing concerns over data privacy, the misuse of genetic information by law enforcement, and the rise of authoritarian governments. The decision comes as 23andMe, a major source of user-submitted genetic data for openSNP, faces bankruptcy and a potential selloff of user data . Founded in 2011, openSNP allowed users to upload genetic data from services like 23andMe to make it freely available for scientific research. Co-founder Bastian Greshake Tzovaras said the closure was triggered in part by the collapse of 23andMe and the broader political climate. Speaking to TechCrunch, he stated : “The risk/benefit calculus of providing free and open access to individual genetic data in 2025 is very different compared to 14 years ago.” The database has collected roughly 7,500 genomes and supported academic work across biomedical research, information security, and more. But its founder now questions the ...
Post a Comment
Read more