Cisco Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (CIS0702107111125)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Cisco breach identified under incident ID CIS0702107111125.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Cisco's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cisco, the number of followers: 6981104, the industry type: Software Development and the number of employees: 94948 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 671 and after the incident was 565 with a difference of -106 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 Cisco and their customers.

On 29 October 2025, Unnamed Bank (Pennsylvania) disclosed Ransomware, Initial Access Brokerage and DDoS Attacks issues under the banner "Yanluowang Ransomware Attacks Facilitated by Initial Access Broker Aleksey Volkov".

A Russian national, Aleksey Olegovich Volkov (25), acted as an initial access broker for the Yanluowang ransomware gang, infiltrating networks of at least eight U.S.-based organizations (including banks, telecoms, and engineering firms) between July 2021 and November 2022.

The disruption is felt across the environment, plus an estimated financial loss of $1.5M+ (confirmed ransom payments) + $9M (restitution agreed in plea deal).

In response, and began remediation that includes Kaspersky released free decrypter (2022).

The case underscores how Ongoing (Plea deal signed 2025-11-25; sentencing pending), teams are taking away lessons such as Initial access brokers play a critical role in ransomware ecosystems, enabling attacks by selling pre-compromised access, Threat actors often masquerade as other nationalities (e.g., Yanluowang posed as Chinese but was Russian) and Cryptocurrency tracing and digital breadcrumbs (e.g., email, Apple ID) are vital for attribution, and recommending next steps like Monitor dark web forums for initial access brokerage activity targeting your industry, Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) and least-privilege access to thwart initial access brokers and Regularly audit cryptocurrency transactions for signs of ransomware payments.

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 (85%), with evidence including exploited Vulnerabilities (unspecified) in attack_vector, and entry_point includes Exploited Vulnerabilities, Phishing: Spearphishing Link (T1566.002) with moderate to high confidence (70%), with evidence including phishing/Social Engineering (likely) in attack_vector, and potential Phishing in initial_access_broker.entry_point, and Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with moderate confidence (65%), supported by evidence indicating initial access broker sold pre-compromised network access (implied credential abuse). Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Server Software Component: Web Shell (T1505.003) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating backdoors established such as true in initial_access_broker. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating initial access broker implies reuse of compromised credentials for lateral movement. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Obfuscated Files or Information (T1027) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating yanluowang custom encryption suggests obfuscation of malicious payloads and Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware typically deletes shadow copies/backups (implied by encryption focus). Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating backdoors_established and lateral movement imply credential theft (common in ransomware). Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified File and Directory Discovery (T1083) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating reconnaissance period such as July 2021 – November 2022 suggests internal reconnaissance and Remote System Discovery (T1018) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating insufficient network segmentation allowing lateral movement (post_incident_analysis). Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating lateral movement post-initial access (root_causes) implies RDP/remote service abuse. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including double Extortion (likely) in ransomware.data_exfiltration, and stealing sensitive corporate/customer data before encrypting (description). Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols (T1071.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including backdoors_established suggests C2 over HTTP/HTTPS, and network access sold to Yanluowang implies remote C2 channels. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol: Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol (T1048.003) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including double Extortion (likely) implies data exfiltration before encryption, and likely (based on ransomware MO) in data_breach.data_exfiltration. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (100%), with evidence including yanluowang custom encryption in data_breach.data_encryption, and ransomware that encrypted critical data (description), Endpoint Denial of Service: Application or System Exploitation (T1499.004) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including dDoS Attacks in attack_vector and type, and dDoS Disruptions in operational_impact, and Data Destruction (T1485) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware often deletes backups/shadow copies (implied by encryption focus). Under the Reconnaissance tactic, the analysis identified Active Scanning: Vulnerability Scanning (T1595.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including exploited Vulnerabilities suggests prior scanning for weaknesses, and reconnaissance period such as July 2021 – November 2022 and Search Open Websites/Domains: Social Media (T1593.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating threatening calls to executives (attack_vector) implies OSINT gathering. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.