US TEENAGER ARRESTED OVER SCATTERED SPIDER HACKING GROUP

Peter Stokes, a 19-year-old dual US-Estonian national, has been arrested and charged in connection with the Scattered Spider hacking group, the US Department of Justice announced. Stokes was arrested in Finland in April and extradited to the United States following an Interpol Red Notice. He appeared in federal court in Chicago on Tuesday and was ordered to remain in custody. The DoJ charged him with computer intrusion, conspiracy and fraud following what it described as "years of work".

Scattered Spider has been linked to hacks resulting in more than $100m in ransom payments, according to the DoJ. The charges against Stokes allege that he and co-conspirators made a ransom demand of approximately $8m in cryptocurrency to a luxury jewellery retailer after stealing its data. The unnamed company refused the demand and "evicted" the hackers, though the DoJ said the business sustained at least $2m in losses from disruption, investigation and threat mitigation. The FBI, working from Copenhagen and Chicago, and Finland's National Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation.

The arrest follows guilty pleas last month from two men connected to a 2024 cyber-attack on Transport for London, which the UK National Crime Agency believed was carried out by Scattered Spider. That attack resulted in the theft of approximately 10 million people's data. The NCA also identified Scattered Spider as central to its investigation into cyber attacks on British retailers Co-op and M&S in the previous year. The group's members are thought to be young, native English speakers from the US and UK.