Ministry of Energy of I.R.IRAN - وزارت نیرو Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (IRA1767601584)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Ministry of Energy of I.R.IRAN - وزارت نیرو breach identified under incident ID IRA1767601584.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Ministry of Energy of I.R.IRAN - وزارت نیرو's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/iran-energy-ministry, the number of followers: 1115, the industry type: Oil and Gas and the number of employees: 187 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 746 and after the incident was 735 with a difference of -11 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 Ministry of Energy of I.R.IRAN - وزارت نیرو and their customers.

On 17 June 2024, Multiple Israeli organizations disclosed DDoS, Website Defacement and Unauthorized Access issues under the banner "Cyber Conflict Escalation in Middle East: Israel-Iran Hacktivism Surge".

The Israel-Iran conflict that began with Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear and military targets on June 13 has sparked a wider cyber conflict in the region, including the launch of new malware campaigns.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Government, Defense and Media, and exposing Banking and cryptocurrency data, personally identifiable information, credentials.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Hacktivist groups using Telegram channels to amplify narratives and claims.

The case underscores how Ongoing, teams are taking away lessons such as Hacktivist groups are leveraging geopolitical conflicts to amplify cyberattacks, combining digital operations with information warfare. Organizations in conflict zones or allied nations are at heightened risk of DDoS, defacement, data breaches, and ransomware attacks, and recommending next steps like Invest in DDoS protections, Enhance data breach prevention measures and Monitor for website defacements, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Organizations in the Middle East and allied nations advised to bolster cybersecurity defenses due to heightened hacktivist activity.

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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating internet-facing systems targeted in DDoS, defacements, unauthorized access, Phishing: Spearphishing Attachment (T1566.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware (IRATA) impersonating Judicial System of Iran/Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware steals credentials, card data, and remotely controls devices. Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified User Execution: Malicious File (T1204.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating encryption.exe wiper malware executes after checking Hebrew/IST conditions and Inter-Process Communication: Component Object Model (T1559.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware (IRATA) remotely controls infected devices. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder (T1547.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware targets 50+ Iranian financial/crypto apps (likely persistence). Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism: Bypass User Account Control (T1548.002) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating accessibility service abuse (Android malware) mentioned in attack vectors. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Masquerading: Match Legitimate Name or Location (T1036.005) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating iRATA malware impersonates Judicial System of Iran/Ministry of Economic Affairs, Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion: System Checks (T1497.001) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating encryption.exe checks for Israel Standard Time/Hebrew language before executing, and Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating wiper malware likely deletes files post-encryption. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Credentials from Password Stores: Credentials from Web Browsers (T1555.003) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware steals credentials, account balances, and card data and Input Capture: Keylogging (T1056.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware remotely controls devices (implies keylogging). Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery (T1614.001) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating encryption.exe checks for Hebrew language settings before executing and Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion: Time Based Evasion (T1497.003) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating malware checks for Israel Standard Time (IST) before executing. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware/wiper malware (encryption.exe) encrypts data, Data Destruction (T1485) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating wiper malware terminates if conditions arent met (implies destructive intent), Defacement: Internal Defacement (T1491.001) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating five website defacements documented in attacks, and Network Denial of Service (T1498) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating 34 DDoS incidents documented in attacks. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating handala Group claimed data exfiltration in ransomware attacks and Automated Exfiltration (T1020) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware steals credentials, balances, and card data (automated theft). Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols (T1071.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating banking malware remotely controls devices (implies C2 over web protocols). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.