NHS England Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (NHS3432334111425)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the NHS England breach identified under incident ID NHS3432334111425.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of NHS England's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nhsengland, the number of followers: 907700, the industry type: Hospitals and Health Care and the number of employees: 52443 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 463 and after the incident was 449 with a difference of -14 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 NHS England and their customers.

On 11 November 2023, UK National Health Service (NHS) disclosed potential data breach and extortion attempt issues under the banner "Potential Cyberattack on UK's National Health Service (NHS) by Clop Extortion Crew".

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is investigating claims of a cyberattack by the extortion crew Clop.

Impact assessments are still underway, so the full scope is not yet clear.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, and stakeholders are being briefed through public statement issued (neither confirmed nor denied intrusion).

The case underscores how ongoing (NHS cybersecurity team and NCSC investigating).

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 high confidence (95%), with evidence including exploit of Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) vulnerability, and potential Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) exploit under initial_access_broker. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including high (if patient data was accessed, given NHS stores vast quantities of sensitive data), and likely (NHS stores vast quantities of patient data) under PII. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including potential exposure of patient records, and sensitivity of data such as high (potential patient data, including PII). 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 (75%), with evidence including clop listed NHS on leak site but no data published yet, and data exfiltration such as unconfirmed (implied by extortion listing). Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware such as data encryption such as null (low confidence; Clop typically exfiltrates first) and Inhibit System Recovery (T1490) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating potential reputational harm due to public disclosure (operational disruption implied). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating no data published yet (suggests potential cleanup or delayed disclosure). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.