A notorious hacking gang known as Scattered Spider just lost one of its legs. A member of the criminal organization, Florida man Noah Urban, was sentenced to ten years in prison by a federal judge in Jacksonville over Urban’s participation in dozens of hacking efforts that targeted individuals and companies to steal cryptocurrency, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Urban, a 20-year-old from Palm Coast, Florida, was arrested in 2024 and charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, to which he pleaded guilty earlier this year. Prosecutors allege that he was involved in the targeting and victimization of 29 cryptocurrency victims and 13 companies. They also recovered about $2.9 million worth of cryptocurrency from Urban’s computer, which was seized during a raid on his home in March 2023. Prosecutors said Urban’s actions resulted in the loss of somewhere between $9.5 million and $25 million from his victims, and he was ordered by the court to pay more than $13 million in restitution.
During his time with Scattered Spider, Urban went by the aliases “Sosa,” “Elijah,” and “King Bob.” Prosecutors said that he and other members of the cybercrime gang stole IDs of their victims and conducted phishing attacks to steal other credentials that allowed them to access victims’ cryptocurrency exchange accounts, locking them out and draining their wallets.
Per Bloomberg, Urban’s lawyer argued that the 20-year-old made “some very poor decisions as a teenager” and said that for members of Scattered Spider, hacking was “kind of like a game for them, they were working together, conspiring together to get access to these systems.” While their victims at the time of their exploits may have seemed faceless, the impact statement submitted to the court by the victims shows just how real these hacks were for people. According to Bloomberg, victims included a retired firefighter, people who lost access to their retirement funds, and a person who said the hackers stole their money set aside for IVF fertility treatments.
Urban was the first member of Scattered Spider to fall, but the group has been in the crosshairs of law enforcement for a bit. The group made its name known in 2023 after ransomware attacks against Las Vegas casinos Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts that netted them millions of dollars. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued an advisory about the group, warning organizations that the group is known for data theft and extortion tactics.
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