Costco Wholesale Corporation Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (COSREX1767166389)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Costco Wholesale Corporation breach identified under incident ID COSREX1767166389.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Costco Wholesale Corporation's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/costco-wholesale-corporation, the number of followers: 191, the industry type: Retail and the number of employees: 26 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 769 and after the incident was 727 with a difference of -42 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 Costco Wholesale Corporation and their customers.

On 12 December 2023, Rexing Companies disclosed Cyber Cargo Theft (Fictitious Pickup) issues under the banner "Fictitious Pickup Cargo Theft of Lobster Meat".

A shipment of lobster meat worth $400,000 was stolen from a Massachusetts cold storage facility by a person posing as a truck driver for a legitimate freight carrier.

The disruption is felt across the environment, plus an estimated financial loss of $400,000.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public disclosure via media (Insurance Journal).

The case underscores how Ongoing (FBI and local police), teams are taking away lessons such as Need for stricter verification of driver credentials and shipping paperwork to prevent fictitious pickups. Cargo theft is a widespread issue requiring legislative and law enforcement attention, and recommending next steps like Implement multi-factor verification for driver credentials and shipping documents, Enhance collaboration between logistics companies, law enforcement, and regulatory bodies to combat organized cargo theft and Advocate for new legislation and additional resources to address cybercrimes and cargo theft scams, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Freight brokers, storage facilities, and retailers should review and strengthen their verification processes for cargo pickups.

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 Phishing: Spearphishing Link (T1566.002) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating cyber-enabled cargo theft tactic where criminals use stolen data to forge shipping documents and Compromise Accounts (T1586) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating thief posed as a driver for the contracted carrier, using fake paperwork and a fraudulent commercial driver’s license. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Obtain Capabilities: Tool - Fraudulent Documents (T1588.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating fake paperwork and a fraudulent commercial driver’s license and Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating stolen data to forge shipping documents. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Use Alternate Authentication Material: Pass the Ticket (T1550.002) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating thief posed as a driver for the contracted carrier and Forge Web Credentials (T1622) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating fraudulent commercial driver’s license. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating $400,000 shipment of lobster meat... was stolen. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.