According to reports, U.S. prosecutors have charged five members of the Scattered Spider gang with launching hacking attacks against dozens of companies and individuals, resulting in the theft of at least $11 million in cryptocurrency.

California federal prosecutors stated that the defendants obtained credentials from employees through fraudulent methods such as SMS phishing and SIM card swapping, accessing accounts and company networks without authorization from late 2021 to spring 2023.

About $4 million of the stolen cryptocurrency has been recovered. Scattered Spider is a decentralized organization that uses social engineering techniques to lure IT employees into accessing company networks, with some members located in the U.S. and the U.K.