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UK Hackers Involved in Retail Cyber-Attacks, Says Google
The Guardian
|May 17, 2025
UK members of the "Scattered Spider" hacking community are "facilitating" cyber-attacks, according to Google, as disruption spreads from British retailers to the US.
The hackers have been linked to attacks on Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Harrods, with Google cybersecurity experts warning this week that unnamed retailers across the Atlantic were being targeted too.
Charles Carmakal, the chief technology officer at Google's Mandiant cybersecurity unit, said the threat had moved to the US in a pattern typical of Scattered Spider assailants.
"They tend to focus on a particular industry sector and geography for a few weeks and then they move on to something else," he said. "And right now they're focused on retail organisations. They start in the UK, and now they've shifted to US organisations."
Asked if UK members of Scattered Spider were involved in hacking M&S, he said: "Without specifically naming who the victims are I will say broadly Scattered Spider members in the UK are facilitating and contributing to intrusions."
This story is from the May 17, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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