Hyundai AutoEver America Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (HYU2792127111125)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Hyundai AutoEver America breach identified under incident ID HYU2792127111125.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Hyundai AutoEver America's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyundai-autoever-america, the number of followers: 75117, the industry type: IT Services and IT Consulting and the number of employees: 663 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 639 and after the incident was 576 with a difference of -63 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 Hyundai AutoEver America and their customers.

On 02 March 2024, Hyundai Motor Company disclosed Data Breach and Unauthorized Access issues under the banner "Hyundai Data Breach Exposes Social Security Numbers and Driver's Licenses".

Hyundai is alerting millions of customers about a data breach that exposed sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers and driver's licenses.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Hyundai AutoEver America (HAEA) systems, Dealership computer systems and Software enabling remote car features, and exposing Full names, Social Security numbers and Driver's license information.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, and stakeholders are being briefed through Delayed disclosure to customers (months after breach).

The case underscores how Completed (took months), and recommending next steps like Minimize data collection/retention to reduce exposure, Improve detection capabilities to reduce dwell time and Enhance transparency in breach disclosures, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Delayed notification to affected customers.

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 to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating hackers gained unauthorized access to Hyundai AutoEver America (HAEA) systems (likely via compromised credentials) and External Remote Services (T1133) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating software enabling remote car features among affected systems suggests potential abuse of external-facing services. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Account Manipulation (T1098) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating unrestricted access for nine days implies potential credential abuse or backdoor creation. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating hAEA systems... digital backbone for Hyundai, Kia, and Genesis suggests cloud/enterprise account compromise. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating remained undetected for nine days suggests possible tampering with logging/monitoring. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating unrestricted access to dealership/dealer systems may involve lateral movement via harvested credentials. Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified File and Directory Discovery (T1083) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating exfiltrate data undetected implies attackers mapped HAEA systems for PII (SSNs, driver’s licenses). Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating exposed highly sensitive customer data, including SSNs, driver’s license information. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating exfiltrate data undetected over nine days suggests staged exfiltration via non-standard channels and Automated Exfiltration (T1020) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating millions of customer records (SSNs, PII) implies automated collection/exfiltration scripts. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Manipulation: Staged Data (T1595.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating data circulated in criminal networks suggests preparation for fraud/identity theft and Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating no direct evidence, but third major incident in three years suggests possible wiping of logs. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.