CyberCube warns insurers of Scattered Spider targeting manufacturing, retail, IT and education sectors

In a significant new cyber risk intelligence assessment, San Francisco-headquartered CyberCube, a leading cyber risk analytics provider, has identified Manufacturing, Education, IT Services, and Retail as the top industry sectors most exposed to Scattered Spider ransomware attacks. According to the firm’s latest data-driven threat model, about 2% of large enterprises across major global cyber insurance markets show high susceptibility to this increasingly sophisticated extortion group. CyberCube’s findings mark a critical inflection point for cyber (re)insurers assessing aggregated systemic risk.

Originally emerging as a social engineering collective in 2022, Scattered Spider has evolved into one of the most aggressive extortion-driven cybercriminal syndicates currently active. Analysts describe its rapid expansion across multiple industry verticals in 2024 as a major concern for enterprise cyber exposure models. Recent incidents involving the group have revealed a mix of traditional ransomware deployment and high-level impersonation schemes, particularly exploiting help desk workflows and multi-factor authentication bypasses.

What sectors face the highest risk from Scattered Spider ransomware attacks according to CyberCube data?

CyberCube’s updated analysis reveals that Manufacturing, Education, Information Technology, and Retail are currently the most exposed to attack methods used by Scattered Spider. The report draws from its proprietary Portfolio Threat Actor Intelligence (PTI) solution, which evaluates cyber risk for over 15,000 enterprises globally. It identified a clear correlation between an organization’s technology stack and the attack group’s preferred infiltration methods.

Among firms with annual revenues exceeding $500 million across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, and Singapore, about 287 companies—or 2% of the total evaluated—were categorized as “high-risk.” These entities exhibit three or more technological traits or software environments frequently exploited by Scattered Spider, combined with internal vulnerabilities in authentication or user access security.

The next 7% of organizations were flagged as “medium-risk.” These companies may use one or two of the threat actor’s favored technologies but are less likely to allow full-cycle compromise. That still translates to over 1,000 medium-risk firms globally. Institutions within these cohorts, especially in industrial manufacturing and digital retail, face increased scrutiny from cyber insurers due to these shared exposure vectors.

How does CyberCube’s Portfolio Threat Actor Intelligence model identify exposure to cybercriminal behavior patterns?

CyberCube’s PTI platform employs Artificial Intelligence and behavioral threat modeling to predict which entities within a portfolio are most likely to be targeted by specific ransomware crews, such as Scattered Spider. The PTI model synthesizes telemetry data, software usage patterns, endpoint security configurations, and threat actor behavior signatures.

Scattered Spider, in particular, relies on deceptive tactics like help desk impersonation and sophisticated social engineering that take advantage of human vulnerabilities within corporate IT infrastructure. CyberCube’s model flags companies running exposed or poorly configured versions of these technologies and identifies conditions such as unsecured remote access, misconfigured multi-factor authentication, or broad admin privileges that heighten the risk of a successful breach.

Analysts noted that firms using vulnerable identity providers or outdated collaboration platforms appeared disproportionately represented among the high-risk cohort. These insights provide cyber (re)insurers with a valuable triage tool to recalibrate their exposure assumptions and improve pre-breach loss control.

What are the implications for cyber (re)insurers underwriting global portfolios with digital exposure?

The implications of CyberCube’s findings are multifold. Institutional sentiment within the (re)insurance market is increasingly aligned with the view that systemic cyber risk is escalating—particularly from organized ransomware groups that are expanding beyond traditional targets.

Scattered Spider’s proven capability to pivot across sectors suggests that traditional assumptions about “safe” industries are no longer valid. For insurers, the PTI model offers a granular approach to identifying where underwriting risk may be concentrated based on the convergence of technology usage and attacker behavior, rather than industry vertical alone.

Cyber (re)insurers are being advised to not only reevaluate their sectoral exposure but also enhance client engagement by encouraging improved patching cycles, multifactor authentication enforcement, and help desk identity validation procedures. By quantifying threat exposure in financial terms, CyberCube’s model also enables underwriters to price cyber risk more accurately—particularly in higher-limit coverage layers, where the risk of loss aggregation is acute.

What future cybersecurity strategies are recommended to mitigate the rising threat from Scattered Spider?

Going forward, analysts expect that ransomware groups like Scattered Spider will continue to iterate on their infiltration tactics, particularly using AI-driven deception and cross-sector reconnaissance. Institutional investors and cyber insurers alike are under pressure to manage these escalating threats via smarter segmentation of insured portfolios.

CyberCube recommends integrating exposure intelligence directly into underwriting workflows and catastrophe modeling frameworks. Its AI-driven PTI tool, part of the broader CyberCube Concierge Threat Intelligence suite, supports such risk stratification. The tool is currently used by more than 100 global insurance entities to simulate actor-specific risk, project claim volatility, and prioritize security improvements.

In addition, organizations flagged as high-risk should invest in red-teaming exercises to identify pathways of least resistance, particularly involving remote help desks and identity systems. CyberCube emphasized that insurers who proactively guide their clients toward closing these specific vulnerabilities stand to benefit from lower claims volatility and better loss ratios.

CyberCube’s deep-dive into Scattered Spider’s evolving threat vectors marks a turning point in how cyber risk is both measured and mitigated. As ransomware groups grow more agile and sector-agnostic, industry-specific assumptions are proving obsolete. Cyber (re)insurers armed with data-rich threat actor intelligence will be best positioned to respond to this volatility, protecting both underwriting integrity and client solvency.