Columbia University Irving Medical Center Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (COL1769038385)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Columbia University Irving Medical Center breach identified under incident ID COL1769038385.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Columbia University Irving Medical Center's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/columbiamed, the number of followers: 90294, the industry type: Hospitals and Health Care and the number of employees: 7740 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 751 and after the incident was 647 with a difference of -104 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 Columbia University Irving Medical Center and their customers.

On 24 November 2025, Columbia Medical Practice disclosed Ransomware issues under the banner "Columbia Medical Practice Hit by Qilin Ransomware Attack, Exposing Sensitive Data of 3,000 Patients".

Columbia Medical Practice, a multi-specialty healthcare provider based in Howard County, Maryland, suffered a ransomware attack on November 5, 2025, orchestrated by the Qilin ransomware group.

The disruption is felt across the environment, and exposing Personally identifiable data, health records, financial and insurance data, with nearly 3000 records at risk.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Established a toll-free assistance line (1-833-974-3375) for affected individuals.

The case underscores how with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Toll-free assistance line (1-833-974-3375) established for affected individuals.

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 moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating attackers infiltrated the organization’s network and Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating no specific attack vector mentioned, but healthcare networks often targeted. Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified User Execution: Malicious File (T1204.002) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware attack orchestrated by Qilin ransomware group. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating attackers maintained access to exfiltrate data. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating access to sensitive patient data implies elevated privileges. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Obfuscated Files or Information (T1027) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware encrypted files to evade detection and Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating files were encrypted by Qilin ransomware group. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating access to sensitive data implies credential compromise. Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified Account Discovery (T1087) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating exfiltration of patient data suggests discovery of high-value targets. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating personally identifiable data, health records, financial data compromised. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltrated before public claim on dark web and Exfiltration Over Web Service (T1567) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating attackers publicly claimed responsibility on the dark web. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating files encrypted by Qilin ransomware group and Defacement (T1491) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating public claim on dark web implies reputational impact. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.