Marks & Spencer Security Incident

Table of Contents Free Active Directory Auditing Tool Try it now Home / Blog / News and Research / Scattered Spider service desk attacks: How to defend your organization Scattered Spider service desk attacks: How to defend your organization Table of Contents Marcus White May 07, 2025 (Last updated on July 11, 2025) Scattered Spider is a disparate hacking collective that has surged to prominence by using sophisticated social engineering tactics. One of their key tactics is exploiting people specifically, corporate service desks. They recently hit the headlines by allegedly carrying out a crippling ransomware hack on UK retailer Marks & Spencer (M&S ). M&S Chairman Archie Norman has since confirmed that hackers impersonated an M&S employee and tricked a third-party service desk agent into carrying out a password reset that gifted them access. The group have also been linked to the recent Co-op and Harrods attacks, which led to stolen member data and crippled payment systems. This has led to the UKs National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) warning organizations to be wary of phony IT helpdesk calls . Since this spate of attacks against UK retailers, four people have been arrested under suspicion of being involved in the hacks. Any organization with a service could theoretically be targeted by these low-tech, high-impact tactics.Well unpack how Scattered Spider and similar groups use social engineering to manipulate help desks into giving them access to corporate networks, as well some tips on what you can do to protect your business. Who are Scattered Spider? Its a good question Scattered Spider (also known as UNC3944 , Octo Tempest , and Muddled Libra ) is a difficult group to pin down. Scattered Spider is the name that was given to a group of cybercriminals that between mid-2022 and mid-2024 carried out cyberattacks that had a huge impact and coverage in the press. Theyve recently been linked to ransomware operations, acting mainly as affiliates for BlackCat (now...

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