‘Scattered Spider’ Member ‘Tylerb’ Pleads Guilty

Tyler Robert Buchanan, a 24-year-old British national and senior member of the cybercrime group Scattered Spider, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy and aggravated identity theft. Buchanan admitted to orchestrating a series of SMS phishing attacks in the summer of 2022 that compromised at least a dozen major technology companies, including Twilio, LastPass, DoorDash, and Mailchimp. These breaches enabled the group to steal tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency from investors through SIM-swapping attacks. Buchanan, known by the hacker alias “Tylerb,” is currently in U.S. custody and faces up to 20 years in prison. Scattered Spider is a notorious English-speaking cybercrime syndicate specializing in social engineering tactics, often impersonating employees or contractors to deceive IT help desks and gain unauthorized access to corporate networks. Buchanan’s guilty plea detailed his involvement in launching tens of thousands of SMS-based phishing campaigns that facilitated these intrusions. The stolen data was then exploited to conduct SIM-swapping attacks, where criminals hijack victims’ phone numbers to intercept authentication codes and reset passwords, enabling theft of virtual currency. The U.S. Justice Department confirmed Buchanan’s role in stealing at least $8 million in cryptocurrency from individuals across the United States. Investigations by the FBI linked Buchanan to the phishing attacks through his use of the same username and email address to register multiple phishing domains. Records from the domain registrar NameCheap showed that these domains were registered from an IP address leased to Buchanan in the United Kingdom throughout 2022. Following the attacks, Buchanan fled the UK in early 2023 after a rival cybercrime gang allegedly targeted his home and family in an assault. His arrest and guilty plea mark a significant development in efforts to dismantle Scattered Spider and hold its members accountable for large-scale cyber theft and fraud.