Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (GRUPOPRES1769017007)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen breach identified under incident ID GRUPOPRES1769017007.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/popeyes-louisiana-kitchen, the number of followers: 97134, the industry type: Restaurants and the number of employees: 27523 employees

After the initial compromise, the video explains how Rankiteo's incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score. The incident score before the incident was 788 and after the incident was 703 with a difference of -85 which is could be a good indicator of the severity and impact of the incident.

In the next step of the video, we will analyze in more details the incident and the impact it had on Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and their customers.

Grubhub recently reported "Grubhub Breach Highlights Growing Third-Party Cyber Risks in the Restaurant Industry", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

In early 2025, Grubhub, one of the largest third-party vendors serving the U.S.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Third-party delivery platforms, point-of-sale systems, kitchen management systems, and exposing Payment card data, loyalty program details, employee records, plus an estimated financial loss of $3.4 million - $3.9 million per breach (industry average).

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how teams are taking away lessons such as Third-party vulnerabilities are a persistent and escalating threat in the restaurant industry due to interconnected digital supply chains. Rigorous vendor audits, cyber insurance, and compliance with standards like SOC and PCI DSS are critical for mitigation, and recommending next steps like Conduct rigorous vendor audits assessing security policies, response plans, staff training, and compliance with standards like SOC and PCI DSS, Clarify indemnities in vendor contracts to mitigate fallout from third-party breaches and Structure cyber insurance policies to cover first- and third-party liabilities, including wire transfer fraud, credit card breaches, and business interruption.

Finally, we try to match the incident with the MITRE ATT&CK framework to see if there is any correlation between the incident and the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

The MITRE ATT&CK framework is a knowledge base of techniques and sub-techniques that are used to describe the tactics and procedures of cyber adversaries. It is a powerful tool for understanding the threat landscape and for developing effective defense strategies.

Rankiteo's analysis has identified several MITRE ATT&CK tactics and techniques associated with this incident, each with varying levels of confidence based on available evidence. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Supply Chain Compromise (T1195) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including cyber incident originating from one of its own service providers, and third-party breaches now account for 30% of all cyber incidents and Supply Chain Compromise: Compromise Software Supply Chain (T1195.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating grubhub fell victim to a cyber incident originating from one of its own service providers. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating hard-coded passwords that could disrupt operations and Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating hard-coded passwords that could disrupt operations. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating payment card data, loyalty program details, employee records compromised and Data from Information Repositories (T1213) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating loyalty program details and employee records were compromised. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating payment card data, loyalty program details, employee records compromised and Transfer Data to Cloud Account (T1537) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating third-party delivery platforms and point-of-sale systems affected. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating business interruption and operational impact mentioned and Defacement (T1491) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating brand reputation impact implied due to breach disclosure. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating hard-coded passwords exploited to disrupt operations and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating breaches go undetected for 212 days on average. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.