British teen arrested over £300 million trademark and Spencer hacker carnival
Four young men, including a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman, were arrested in a major cybercrime investigation linked to high-profile attacks on Marks & Spencer, the co-op and Harrods.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) coordinated with local police forces and detained the suspect earlier Thursday, who was believed to have been a series of harmful hacking crimes conducted by a spider known as the Scattered Spider, an international cybercrime network that is notorious for using social engineering strategies.
Among the arrested people, a 17-year-old British boy and a 19-year-old Latvian man were arrested in the West Midlands. A 19-year-old British man in London, a 20-year-old British woman in Staffordshire.
All four were suspected of co-conspiring to obtain access to unauthorized computer systems and further suspected of ransomware, money laundering and participating in activities of organized crime groups. They remained detained and were detained as part of the investigation.
The cyber attack is reportedly estimated at £300 million after retailers were forced to suspend their online operations. The exact financial impact on the cooperative and Harrods has not been disclosed.
“We welcome this development and thank the NCA for its hard work on this incident,” M&S said in a statement.
The attacker is believed to have used a social engineering approach – impersonating employees or contractors to penetrate the company’s systems and gaining sensitive infrastructure.
During a parliamentary committee hearing earlier this week, M&S chairman Archie Norman declined to comment on whether the company had paid the ransom to hackers, due to speculation that ransomware might be involved.
Paul Foster, head of the NCA National Cyber Crime Division, described the arrests as a major breakthrough: “Since these attacks, professional NCA cybercrime investigators have been working at Pace. Today’s arrest is an important step in that investigation, but our work is still with the UK and beyond to ensure that these responsible people identify and identify and designate justice.”
Foster also praised the cooperation of the affected companies and urged other potential cybercrime victims to report attacks:
“We know that many events are not reported and we encourage all organizations, regardless of their size, to think they have become targets.”
The scattered spider population has become a highly organized and technically refined cybercrime costume known for targeting large companies through deception, phishing and imitation of insiders. Experts say the organization often recruits tech-savvy young people online, some of whom may not fully grasp the legal consequences of their actions.
The investigation is still ongoing and the NCA has not ruled out further arrests.
