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Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters, and LAPSUS$ Form Unified Cyber Extortion Collective

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3 unique sources, 3 articles

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A new cyber extortion collective, Scattered LAPSUS$ Hunters (SLH), has emerged as a unified alliance combining Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters, and LAPSUS$. The group is leveraging the reputational capital of these three high-profile criminal brands to create a consolidated threat identity. SLH is using Telegram as a command hub and brand engine, cycling through public channels to maintain a persistent presence. The alliance aims to fill the void left by the collapse of BreachForums and attract displaced operators with an affiliate-driven extortion model. SLH has created 16 Telegram channels since August 8, 2025, and offers an extortion-as-a-service (EaaS) model. The group is part of a larger cybercriminal enterprise known as The Com and has associations with other threat clusters, including CryptoChameleon and Crimson Collective. SLH's activities blend financially motivated cybercrime and attention-driven hacktivism, with a mature grasp of perception and legitimacy within the cybercriminal ecosystem. The group has hinted at developing a custom ransomware family named Sh1nySp1d3r and is aligned with DragonForce, functioning as an affiliate to break into targets through social engineering techniques. Recently, the admin of SLH, Rey, a 16-year-old named Saif Al-Din Khader from Amman, Jordan, has been cooperating with law enforcement since June 2025. Rey has been involved in releasing SLSH's new ShinySp1d3r ransomware-as-a-service offering, which is a rehash of Hellcat ransomware modified with AI tools.

Timeline

  1. 26.11.2025 19:22 1 articles · 23h ago

    Rey's identity exposed and cooperation with law enforcement

    The admin of SLH, Rey, has been identified as a 16-year-old named Saif Al-Din Khader from Amman, Jordan. Rey has been cooperating with law enforcement since June 2025 and has been involved in releasing the group's new ShinySp1d3r ransomware-as-a-service offering. The article details Rey's operational security mistakes that led to the exposure of his real-life identity and location, as well as his involvement in pro-Palestinian hacktivist activities.

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  2. 04.11.2025 16:15 3 articles · 23d ago

    Scattered Spider, ShinyHunters, and LAPSUS$ Form Unified Extortion Collective

    SLH has created 16 Telegram channels since August 8, 2025, and offers an extortion-as-a-service (EaaS) model. The group is part of a larger cybercriminal enterprise known as The Com and has associations with other threat clusters, including CryptoChameleon and Crimson Collective. SLH uses Telegram to coordinate and market their services, similar to hacktivist groups. The group has accused Chinese state actors of exploiting vulnerabilities and targeted U.S. and U.K. law enforcement agencies. SLH invites channel subscribers to participate in pressure campaigns by finding and emailing C-suite executives. The group has hinted at developing a custom ransomware family named Sh1nySp1d3r and is aligned with DragonForce, functioning as an affiliate to break into targets through social engineering techniques. The admin of SLH, Rey, is a 16-year-old named Saif Al-Din Khader from Amman, Jordan, who has been cooperating with law enforcement since June 2025. Rey has been involved in releasing the group's new ShinySp1d3r ransomware-as-a-service offering, which is a rehash of Hellcat ransomware modified with AI tools.

    Show sources

Information Snippets

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The ongoing campaign employs a sophisticated phishing kit that customizes the page presented to the site visitor depending on a unique string in the URL path when the target first visits the website. The customizations use the logos from major online travel industry brands, including Airbnb and Booking.com. The attack begins with a phishing email urging recipients to click on a link to confirm their booking within the next 24 hours using a credit card. Should they take the bait, the victims are taken to a fake site instead after initiating a chain of redirects. These bogus sites follow consistent naming patterns for their domains, featuring phrases like confirmation, booking, guestcheck, cardverify, or reservation to give them an illusion of legitimacy. The pages support 43 different languages, allowing the threat actors to cast a wide net. The page then instructs the victim to pay a deposit for their hotel reservation by entering their card information. In the event that any user directly attempts to access the page without a unique identifier called AD_CODE, they are greeted with a blank page. The bogus sites also feature a fake CAPTCHA check that mimics Cloudflare to deceive the target. The campaign uses a unique identifier called AD_CODE to ensure consistent branding across pages. The phishing pages attempt to process a transaction in the background while displaying a support chat window for 3D Secure verification. The identity of the threat group remains unknown, but Russian is used in source code comments and debugger output. The campaign is linked to a previous phishing campaign targeting the hospitality industry with PureRAT malware. The phishing kit is a fully automated, multi-stage platform designed for efficiency and stealth. The phishing kit employs CAPTCHA filtering to evade security scans and uses Telegram bots to exfiltrate stolen credentials and payment information.