Two British members of the Scattered Spider cybercrime collective who helped carry out the 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London have been sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, bringing to a close what the UK’s National Crime Agency described as the country’s biggest cybercrime prosecution to reach the courts.
While the Transport for London (TfL) breach was the focus of the prosecution, the case also provides one of the clearest public links yet between individuals convicted in the UK and the cybercrime group responsible for some of the most disruptive ransomware incidents in recent years, including the attacks on MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment in Las Vegas.
Two young men have been sentenced for launching a cyber attack on Transport for London (TfL) which cost tens of millions of pounds in losses and inconvenienced thousands of customers.Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers were identified by the NCA and @CityPolice following the attack… pic.twitter.com/ZJdmdZhXRJ
— National Crime Agency (NCA) (@NCA_UK) July 16, 2026Thalha Jubair, 20, and Owen Flowers, 18, pleaded guilty last month before being sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday. Prosecutors said the pair infiltrated TfL’s systems between Aug. 31 and Sept. 3, 2024, forcing the transport operator to reset passwords for roughly 28,000 employees, disrupting multiple customer services and leaving the organization with about £29 million in recovery costs.
Authorities said the hackers gained extensive administrative access after using social engineering techniques to compromise employee credentials. Investigators recovered recordings, screenshots, chat logs and other digital evidence tying the pair to the intrusion.
Teenagers Owen Flowers and Thalha Jubair, who targeted TfL as part of an online cyberhacking group, have been jailed at Woolwich Crown Court following a successful CPS prosecution. Read more: t.co/hlIrzFOwHX pic.twitter.com/EUPjgVb00Y
— Crown Prosecution Service (@CPSUK) July 16, 2026The NCA described the defendants as members of Scattered Spider and said the Transport for London investigation was “lengthy, highly complex and painstaking.”
“The perseverance and meticulousness of our officers, and the work of our partner organisations, meant that Jubair and Flowers had no option other than to plead guilty and take responsibility for their offending,” said Paul Foster, deputy director and head of the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit.
“The profile of offenders like Flowers and Jubair demonstrates the increasing threat from cyber criminals based in the UK and other English-speaking countries, epitomised by Scattered Spider.”
Foster added: “This is why we work closely with partners at home and abroad to identify offenders within these networks and bring them to justice.”
TfL case exposes Scattered Spider network attack against MGM and Caesars
The case is thought to be significant beyond the TfL attack because both men were identified by the National Crime Agency as members of Scattered Spider, a loose network of primarily English-speaking hackers known for targeting major corporations through help desk impersonation, SIM-swapping and other social engineering tactics.
The same group attracted worldwide attention in September 2023 after breaching MGM Resorts International, triggering widespread outages that disabled hotel room keys, slot machines, payment systems and other operations across its casino properties. Caesars Entertainment was also compromised during the same campaign after attackers allegedly stole customer data. Those incidents established Scattered Spider as one of the most capable financially motivated cybercrime groups operating against large enterprises.
Today the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that Thalha Jubair and Owen Flowers, members of the Scattered Spider criminal group, were each sentenced to five years and six months imprisonment for conducting a cyberattack targeting Transport for London. Flowers was also… pic.twitter.com/FmduerGT2C
— FBI Cyber Division (@FBICyberDiv) July 16, 2026Security researchers say Scattered Spider is not a traditional organized gang but a loose collection of hackers connected through an underground online ecosystem known as “The Com.”
According to KrebsOnSecurity, members collaborate across Telegram and Discord communities, sharing techniques, recruiting accomplices and coordinating attacks. The publication also reported that some participants in those communities have been linked to online “harm groups” involved in stalking, harassment, sextortion, doxing and coercing vulnerable victims into self-harm.
The outlet also states that the guilty pleas represented the first time key members of the group publicly admitted responsibility in a major criminal case. The report noted that Flowers separately admitted participating in conspiracies targeting U.S. healthcare providers SSM Health and Sutter Health.
Although prosecutors focused on the TfL intrusion, investigators have described the case as evidence of the growing threat posed by young, English-speaking cybercriminals operating from the UK.
The National Crime Agency said the prosecution demonstrates its wider effort to identify and dismantle members of Scattered Spider working alongside international law enforcement partners, such as the FBI. The sentencing also comes as authorities and security researchers continue investigating the wider ecosystem surrounding the group, including links to cybercrime, SIM-swapping and online harassment communities that have helped fuel some of the most high-profile attacks against major companies in recent years.
Featured image: National Crime Agency
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