UK authorities arrest four suspected members of hacker group Scattered Spider

The National Crime Agency (NCA) in London has arrested two 19-year-old men, a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old woman on suspicion of blackmail, money laundering, organized crime and contravening the Computer Misuse Act. These arrests are part of an investigation into a series of cyberattacks on three large UK retailers — Marks & Spencer, Harrods and Co-op — earlier this year.

UK investigators believe the suspects are connected with a loose-knit English-speaking hacker group called Scattered Spider, which has been blamed for a series of high-profile incidents. For Co-op, this was the second such incident this year, after a hacking group called DragonForce gained access to the retailer's membership data. Scattered Spider was implicated in 2023 when US-based casino chain Caesars Entertainment reportedly paid tens of millions of dollars to the group in order to keep its customers’ data from being exposed.

Marks & Spencer was attacked in April ...