Scattered Spider and Iranian government-backed cyber units demonstrate similar traits in their hacking activities, especially in social engineering attacks. Ariel Parnes highlighted a notable incident involving the Shirbit insurance company, targeted by Iranian hackers who acquired sensitive data. The psychological impact of such attacks, particularly the dissemination of private information via social media, is significant. Moreover, Iranian groups have extended their tactics to Western targets, employing spear-phishing and other social engineering methods, while leaving potential intrusions unexploited to amplify perceived threats.
One of the famous cases in Israel was with an insurance company. Parnes is referring to an Iranian hack-and-leak operation in late 2020 against Israeli insurance company Shirbit, which insured employees of Israel's Defense Ministry - although it's worth noting that Scattered Spider also had a more recent run of digital intrusions into American insurance firms.
The power of the attack, more than anything else, was the psychological impact of it. It's the fact that they were able to get their hands on sensitive data from citizens of Israel, some of them working in the government, and then they amplified that through social media and other tools.
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