IBM Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (IBM1769139399)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the IBM breach identified under incident ID IBM1769139399.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of IBM's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ibm, the number of followers: 19057383, the industry type: IT Services and IT Consulting and the number of employees: 341860 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 811 and after the incident was 744 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 IBM and their customers.

A newly reported cybersecurity incident, "Healthcare Data Breach Costs Drop, but U.S. Breaches Hit Record High in 2025", has drawn attention.

IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report reveals a mixed landscape for cybersecurity costs, with global averages declining for the first time in five years while U.S.

The disruption is felt across the environment, plus an estimated financial loss of $4.44 million (global average), $10.22 million (U.S. average), $7.42 million (healthcare average).

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how teams are taking away lessons such as Delayed breach responses increase costs; ungoverned AI and shadow IT pose significant risks; healthcare remains highly vulnerable despite cost reductions, and recommending next steps like Implement DevSecOps, AI/ML-driven security insights, and security analytics to reduce breach costs. Strengthen AI governance and access controls. Address shadow IT and supply chain vulnerabilities. Increase law enforcement involvement in ransomware cases.

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 (T1566) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating phishing (16%) overtook stolen credentials (10%) as the top attack method, Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating stolen credentials (10%) as the top attack method, and Supply Chain Compromise (T1195) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating supply chain compromise (15%) ranking second. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Credentials from Password Stores (T1555) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating stolen credentials (10%) as the top attack method and Brute Force (T1110) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating stolen credentials imply potential brute force or credential dumping. Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified User Execution (T1204) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating phishing (16%) as the top attack method implies user execution. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses (T1562) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating shadow IT (+$200K) drove costs higher, implying evasion of defenses and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating stolen credentials (10%) used for access and evasion. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware attacks persisted, with 37% of organizations paying ransoms and Defacement (T1491) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating nearly all breached organizations faced disruptions (>100 days recovery). Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating 16% of breaches involved attacker-used AI, primarily for phishing/exfiltration and Data from Cloud Storage (T1530) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating healthcare breaches took 279 days to detect/mitigate, implying exfiltration. Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Remote Services (T1021) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating supply chain compromise (15%) implies lateral movement post-compromise. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.