What makes threat actors like Scattered Spider so hard to defeat? Scattered Spider’s strategy combines social engineering, credential abuse, MFA compromise, and large-scale data exfiltration to fuel extortion and high-tier ransomware operations. Below is a simple breakdown of the key takeaways from our latest report on how Scattered Spider operates across identity, cloud, SaaS, and on-prem environments, and why defenders often have less than 48 hours to respond. ⬜ 𝗘𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗩𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 Scattered Spider (UNC3944 / Roasted 0ktapus / STORM-0875 / Octo Tempest) uses SIM swapping, MFA push fatigue, credential harvesting via infostealers, and extortion-driven data breaches across IaaS and SaaS. Recent campaigns show increased focus on cloud environments and VMware ESXi. Their playbook blends social engineering, MFA compromise, credential abuse, and high-tier ransomware operations. ⬜ 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗢𝗻-𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲 𝗣𝗶𝘃𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 One of the most important insights: speed. Once inside, attacks move fast, often under 48 hours before encryption. The group rapidly pivots across tactics, shifts away from phishing pages to full vishing-based social engineering, impersonates IT or CFO roles, and even monitors internal corporate chats to tweak their intrusion in real time. They increasingly exploit MSPs as single points of entry to reach multiple victim networks. ⬜ 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱-𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗔𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀 The group frequently rotates infrastructure and domains every 1–2 months, switching alliances between ransomware affiliates like ALPHV/BlackCat, Qilin, and DragonForce. In AWS environments, they leverage the Management Console, S3 Browser, and CloudShell for enumeration, credential harvesting, instance profile replacement, and disabling GuardDuty and S3 logging before exfiltration. ⬜ 𝗦𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘀 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 Scattered Spider now relies almost entirely on vishing for initial compromise. Attackers impersonate privileged IT or executive roles and adapt their methods in real time based on what they observe inside victim communication channels. They specifically target IT help desks, aiming to engineer MFA resets and privileged account access socially. ⬜ 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 The group performs deep recon across SaaS applications to map environments, hunt for credentials, and stage lateral movement. Their SaaS reconnaissance is a core enabler for identity abuse and rapid escalation. This report includes insights informed by vendor case studies from CrowdStrike, Silverfort, and Permiso Security, illustrating how the market is approaching identity visibility, posture hardening, and threat detection. Curious how these behaviours shape modern identity and cloud defence, read the full report here: https://lnkd.in/eupADZ93 #ThreatActors #Cybersecurity #HolidaySeason #CyberAttack
