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The cybersecurity behemoth CrowdStrike has verified the dismissal of an insider who reportedly leaked sensitive details of internal systems to a well-known hacking group.
The occurrence, which emerged late Thursday and into Friday morning, involved the dissemination of internal screenshots on a public Telegram channel managed by the threat faction known as “Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters.”
The disclosures emerged when Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, a self-identified “supergroup” made up of participants from Scattered Spider, LAPSUS$, and ShinyHunters, shared images that allegedly indicated access to CrowdStrike’s internal framework.
The screenshots, which TechCrunch evaluated, showcased internal dashboards, including an Okta Single Sign-On (SSO) interface utilized by employees for entering corporate applications.
The attackers asserted these images served as evidence of a wider compromise attained through a third-party breach at Gainsight, a customer success platform employed by Salesforce clients.
Nevertheless, the actuality seems to focus less on a technical compromise and more on human frailty. Reports suggest that the threat actors allegedly offered the insider $25,000 to enable access to the network.
While the hackers claimed to have obtained authentication cookies, CrowdStrike asserts that its security operations center identified the activity before any harmful access could be fully executed.
CrowdStrike promptly addressed the allegations, clarifying that the images shared were a result of an employee displaying their screen rather than a systemic breach of the network.
A spokesperson for CrowdStrike commented to Cybersecurity News, “We discovered and dismissed a questionable insider last month following an internal probe that revealed he shared images of his computer screen externally. Our systems were never breached, and customers remained safeguarded throughout. We have handed the matter over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”
This episode is part of a broader, aggressive initiative by Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, who have recently targeted major firms by exploiting third-party vendors like Gainsight and Salesloft.
In October 2025, the group claimed to have extracted nearly 1 billion records from Salesforce clientele, naming high-profile victims like Allianz Life, Qantas, and Stellantis on their data leak platform.
The group’s tactics often include intense social engineering and recruiting insiders to circumvent perimeter defenses, a strategy that has become increasingly prevalent in 2025.
While CrowdStrike successfully managed this particular insider threat without impacting customers, the incident underscores the ongoing risk posed by insider recruitment in critical cybersecurity landscapes.
The amalgamation of adept social engineering with the combined resources of three significant cybercrime syndicates represents a considerable evolution in the threat environment confronting technology enterprises today.
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