British Scattered Spider hacker pleads guilty to crypto theft charges

Tyler Robert Buchanan, a 24-year-old British national believed to be the leader of the Scattered Spider cybercrime collective, has pleaded guilty in the U.S. to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges. He and co-conspirators stole at least $8 million in cryptocurrency by conducting SMS phishing attacks against employees of over a dozen companies between 2021 and 2023. The stolen credentials were used in SIM swap attacks to hijack victims' phone numbers and drain cryptocurrency wallets. Buchanan faces a maximum of 22 years in prison and will be sentenced in August 2026. Three other co-conspirators face similar charges, while a fourth member was already sentenced to 10 years. Scattered Spider, also known as 0ktapus and Octo Tempest, has been linked to high-profile breaches at MGM Resorts, Caesars, Twilio, and others, and has partnered with Russian ransomware gangs including BlackCat and Qilin.