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Modern Wisdom

#954 - Joe Tidy - Chasing The Most Hated Hacker In History

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.74.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 June 2025

⏱️ 89 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joe Tidy is a BBC cybersecurity correspondent, covering hacking, data security, and online safety. Many have either fallen victim personally to a cyberattack or know someone who has. But what exactly is this growing threat? Who’s behind it, why are they doing it, and, most importantly, how can you protect yourself? Expect to learn what Scattered Spider is, if teenage hackers are the new digital cartel and why Russia is such a hotbed for hacking, when cyber security attacks will be treated as an act of war, the wild story of the hacker Julius Kivimäki, the fallout from the crowd strike attack the put the world on standstill, if regulation of the dark web and crypto economy will ever evolve past what it is today, and much more… Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom Get the brand new Whoop 5.0 at https://join.whoop.com/modernwisdom Get a 20% discount & free shipping on Manscaped’s shavers at https://manscaped.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM20) Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: https://tinyurl.com/43hv6y59 #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: https://tinyurl.com/2rtz7avf #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: https://tinyurl.com/3ccn5vkp - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

What's happening with Scattered Spider?

0:03.7

Well, Scattered Spider is the name of this very loosely coordinated collective of hackers

0:10.7

that are, we think, currently causing havoc around the UK and the US as well.

0:16.9

So I don't know if you've heard about the news of the MNS cyber attack and the co-op cyber attack.

0:22.4

So there's a really big, if you're not in the UK, there's a really big chain of supermarkets called MNS, very much loved over 100 years old, one of the pillars of the high street.

0:32.8

And around Easter time, there was a cyber attack which started causing problems for MNS, and it just

0:39.0

got worse and worse and worse for them. Because initially, they said, actually, we can't

0:44.8

take orders on the internet, which for a massive company like MNS is really bad. Then we started

0:49.5

seeing logistics problems, empty shelves in some stores. And then around this same time, there was a very

0:55.8

similar attack on the co-op. Again, another big supermarket chain in the UK. They also do funeral

1:01.2

services and insurance as well. That attack wasn't as bad, but again, we're seeing disruption at

1:07.5

stores, empty shelves, real chaos behind the scenes. And around the same time,

1:12.7

we saw an attack on Harrods, obviously the luxury retailer in London. So everyone's wondering

1:19.2

what on earth is going on. And things have got progressively worse. And then we hear the last

1:24.6

couple of days, there are attacks on US retailers as well. And everyone

1:29.2

is pointing towards this really infamous group called Scattered Spider. And they're not a normal

1:35.6

cybercrime gang. They haven't named themselves that. They are not very organized. They come

1:41.6

together on Discord and Telegram. A little bit like, have you heard of Anonymous?

1:46.1

Yes.

1:46.8

Yeah. So they're a little bit like that, but more out for cybercrime and money and infamy

1:51.9

than sort of hacktivism. So one company called CrowdStrike started looking at this activity

1:59.9

coming from this sort of corner of the

...

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