Health Care Service Corporation Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (HCS1202712111125)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Health Care Service Corporation breach identified under incident ID HCS1202712111125.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Health Care Service Corporation's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hcsc, the number of followers: 158363, the industry type: Hospitals and Health Care and the number of employees: 20555 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 599 and after the incident was 532 with a difference of -67 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 Health Care Service Corporation and their customers.

On 01 October 2023, Montana Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBS) disclosed data breach and third-party vendor compromise issues under the banner "Montana Blue Cross-Blue Shield Vendor Data Breach".

A data breach at a vendor of Montana Blue Cross-Blue Shield (BCBS) exposed financial and health information of over 460,000 Montanans.

The disruption is felt across the environment, and exposing financial information and medical records, with nearly 460,000+ records at risk.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like breach closed in February 2023, and began remediation that includes implementation of AI-powered assistance tool for residents, while recovery efforts such as AI tool for real-time resident support and website updates with breach information continue, and stakeholders are being briefed through public announcement, AI tool for resident guidance and website portal (csimt.gov).

The case underscores how ongoing (class-action lawsuit in progress), teams are taking away lessons such as Proactive use of AI tools can enhance post-breach resident support and triage, especially for large-scale incidents with limited staff resources. Ensuring AI tools are isolated from sensitive systems and comply with privacy standards mitigates secondary risks, and recommending next steps like Implement AI-driven support tools for large-scale breach responses to improve real-time assistance, Ensure third-party vendors adhere to robust cybersecurity standards to prevent supply-chain breaches and Provide clear, accessible guidance for affected individuals on steps like credit freezes and identity theft monitoring, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering AI tool for resident guidance and website updates with breach information.

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 Supply Chain Compromise: Third-party Software (T1195.002) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including third-party vendor compromise in incident_details.type, and breach at a vendor of Montana BCBS in incident_details.description. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating financial information and medical records exposed (data_breach.type_of_data_compromised). 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 (70%), supported by evidence indicating breach lasted several months implies sustained data transfer (incident_details.description). Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with lower confidence (10%), supported by evidence indicating no ransomware confirmed, but high risk of identity theft/financial fraud (impact.identity_theft_risk) and Resource Hijacking (T1496) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating aI tool deployed to assist affected residents suggests potential misuse of computational resources (response.remediation_measures). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating breach lasted several months suggests attempts to evade detection (incident_details.description). 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 financial information exposed may include credentials (data_breach.type_of_data_compromised). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.