ASRC Federal Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (ASR1765600751)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the ASRC Federal breach identified under incident ID ASR1765600751.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of ASRC Federal's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/asrc-federal, the number of followers: 44993, the industry type: IT Services and IT Consulting and the number of employees: 4966 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 764 and after the incident was 748 with a difference of -16 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 ASRC Federal and their customers.

US Department of Defense Contractors recently reported "The 2025 Cybersecurity Reckoning: From Optional to Mandatory", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

In 2025, cybersecurity shifted from a 'best practice' to a mandatory requirement for operational survival.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Backbone routers, Energy systems and Water systems, and exposing Telecommunications and critical infrastructure data.

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how teams are taking away lessons such as The coordination burden of managing fragmented tools exceeded most organizations’ capacity. Purchasing point solutions does not equal achieving security outcomes. Integrated security programs with unified accountability and embedded governance are essential, and recommending next steps like Unify accountability by consolidating vendor coordination into a single point of accountability, Embed governance as a standard requirement rather than an optional add-on and Focus on delivering measurable security results rather than billable complexity.

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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating weaponization of unpatched vulnerabilities during government shutdown, Phishing (T1566) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating attackers exploited the chaos, spoofing government emails, and Trusted Relationship (T1199) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating compromised telecommunications networks in 80+ countries. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Account Manipulation (T1098) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating salt Typhoon active since at least 2019, targeting backbone routers. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating targeted backbone routers to infiltrate critical infrastructure. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating cISA furloughed 65% of its staff, crippling cyber defenses and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating 99% of contractors failed CMMC compliance, lacking MFA (27%). Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Brute Force (T1110) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating lack of MFA (27%) and poor patch management (22%). Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified File and Directory Discovery (T1083) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating salt Typhoon campaign for intelligence gathering. Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation of Remote Services (T1210) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating compromised backbone routers to infiltrate critical infrastructure. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration confirmed in Salt Typhoon campaign. Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Proxy (T1090) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating compromised telecommunications networks in 80+ countries. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration such as Yes (Salt Typhoon). Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating disruption of national defense and critical infrastructure and Data Manipulation (T1565) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating operational disruption as motivation for Salt Typhoon. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.