Social Security Administration Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (CLOUSDSSA1769016836)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Social Security Administration breach identified under incident ID CLOUSDSSA1769016836.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Social Security Administration's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ssa, the number of followers: 194555, the industry type: Government Administration and the number of employees: 46616 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 716 and after the incident was 697 with a difference of -19 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 Social Security Administration and their customers.

On 03 March 2025, Social Security Administration (SSA) disclosed Data Misuse, Election Interference, Unauthorized Data Access issues under the banner "DOGE Employees Alleged Election Interference and Data Misuse".

The U.S.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting SSA systems, Third-party servers (Cloudflare), and exposing Social Security data, Voter rolls, Private data of ~1,000 individuals, with nearly ~1,000 records at risk.

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how Ongoing.

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 Valid Accounts (T1078) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating dOGE team members at the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment (T1566.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating password-protected file with private data of ~1,000 individuals. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating password-protected file with private data of ~1,000 individuals. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating matching Social Security data with state voter rolls and Data from Information Repositories (T1213) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating social Security data, Voter rolls, Private data of ~1,000 individuals. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Web Service (T1567) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating unauthorized use of third-party servers (Cloudflare) and Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating email containing a password-protected file with private data. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Hide Artifacts: Hidden Files and Directories (T1564.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating password-protected file with private data and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating dOGE team members used SSA systems for unauthorized activities. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating potential legal and regulatory scrutiny, reputational damage and Defacement (T1491) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating reputational damage to SSA and DOGE team. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.