My 0ktapus Teacher:

New Actors, New Problems

Jake Nicastro

Gone are the days of just rigid, holistic cybercrime attribution. Through 2022 and into 2023, Mandiant has spent hundreds of hours in the trenches shining light in a new dark corner of the cybercriminal world—one with not so much “cybercrime gangs” as there are a sea of creatures making up a messy web of vague personas and murky relationships. Mandiant has had traditional attribution perfected as an art and a science, but this rising tide of amorphous activity has presented a new challenge in defining a “cluster”. From the whales of Lapsus and 0ktapus, to the lesser-known predators that prowl in the muddier waters of anonymity, we will dive into how these turbulent “groups” make us question our course.