Fla Man, SIM-Swapping Spree: Suspect Links to Oktapus & Scattered Spider

TLDR:

The 19-year-old Florida man charged with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiring with others to use SIM-swapping to steal cryptocurrency is also a key member of the criminal hacking group Oktapus, Scattered Spider. Between August 2022 and March 2023, Noah Michael Urban allegedly stole at least $800,000 from five victims through unauthorized SIM-swapping attacks to compromise their email and financial accounts. Urban, known by the aliases “Sosa” and “King Bob,” was involved in the 2022 breach at Twilio and was reportedly part of a gang that was behind breaches at over 130 organizations, including LastPass, DoorDash, Mailchimp, and Plex. The group was dubbed “0ktapus” by Group-IB. Urban is accused of going by the name “Elijah” in a separate SIM-swapping group called Star Fraud, which may have been involved in the attacks on Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts.