Cybersecurity investigators worry ransomware attacks may worsen as young, Western hackers work with Russians [Video]

This is an updated version of a story first published on April 14, 2024. The original video can be viewed here. 

The FBI and private security companies are in constant combat with ransomware gangs: hackers who break into corporate computer networks, encrypt, or lock up critical files and hold them hostage until a ransom is paid. It’s a crime that has been growing more disruptive every year. Victims include companies large and small, cities and municipalities, hospitals, and some of the toughest targets to infiltrate: Las Vegas hotels and casinos. As we first reported in April of last year, the FBI continues monitoring an especially audacious group of young english-speaking hackers from the U.S., U.K., and Canada known as “Scattered Spider,” that seemed to have gone quiet after several arrests, but is now evidently back in business.

In September 2023, one of the most pernicious ransomware attacks in history was unleashed …