Google, from Alphabet, said on Wednesday (14) that Hackers responsible for paralyzing UK retailers are turning their attention to industry companies in the United States.
“American retailers should be aware. These agents are aggressive, creative and particularly effective in circumventing mature security programs,” said John Hultquist, Google’s cyber security division analyst in a statement.
Hultquist stated that The culprit is a group linked to the scattered Spider, Nickname for a vaguely interconnected network of hackers with various levels of sophistication.
There are widespread reports that Scattered Spider is behind the highly disruptive attack on M&Sone of the best known British retailers whose online operations have been frozen since April 25.
The Scattered Spider group has a focus history in one industry at a time and will probably continue to aim for the retail for some time, Hultquist said.
Scattered Spider ecosystem hackers are behind a series of disruptive invasions on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2023, hackers linked to the group were headlines for hacking the MGM Casino operators Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment.
Police authorities have been difficult to control Scattered Spider hackers, in part due to the group’s lack of involvement, hacker youth and lack of cooperation from cyber crime victims, as reported earlier by Reuters.
The FBI and the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency, US Cyber Civil Civil Body, did not return a message requesting comments.
Christian Beckner, vice president of the National Retail Federation, said his members were already alert to the risk of groups disturbing groups linked to Scattered Spider.
“We have been closely following everything that is happening in the UK in recent weeks,” he said. “There are no geographical limits for these threats.”
Retail & Hospitality Isac, a information sharing group whose main members include Albertsons, Costco, McDonald’s and Lowe’s, said he was working with Google to prepare a briefing for his members.
