Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (PONILL1769570121)
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Rankiteo Score Impact Analysis
Key Highlights From The Incident Analysis
- Timeline of Ponemon Institute's Ransomware and lateral movement inside company's environment.
- Overview of affected data sets, including SSNs and PHI, and why they materially increase incident severity.
- How Rankiteo’s incident engine converts technical details into a normalized incident score.
- How this cyber incident impacts Ponemon Institute Rankiteo cyber scoring and cyber rating.
- Rankiteo’s MITRE ATT&CK correlation analysis for this incident, with associated confidence level.
Full Incident Analysis Transcript
In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Ponemon Institute breach identified under incident ID PONILL1769570121.
The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Ponemon Institute's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ponemon-institute, the number of followers: 3298, the industry type: Research Services and the number of employees: 31 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 749 and after the incident was 628 with a difference of -121 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 Ponemon Institute and their customers.
On 28 January 2024, a cybersecurity incident called "Ransomware Attacks Surge, Causing Widespread Disruption and Financial Losses" came to light.
A new study by the Ponemon Institute, commissioned by Illumio, reveals the escalating impact of ransomware attacks on organizations worldwide.
The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting 25% of critical systems, plus an estimated financial loss of Significant revenue loss (40% of organizations).
In response, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like 17.5 personnel working 132 hours each per incident, while recovery efforts such as Only 13% fully restored data after an attack continue.
The case underscores how teams are taking away lessons such as Ransomware’s growing sophistication demands operational resilience to prevent attackers from reaching critical systems. Poor visibility in cloud/hybrid environments and unpatched systems are major vulnerabilities. Microsegmentation is a critical control for breach containment, and recommending next steps like Implement microsegmentation, improve visibility in cloud/hybrid environments, patch systems promptly, enhance employee awareness, and adopt AI for defense.
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.
MITRE ATT&CK® Correlation Analysis
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 and Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) are the top entry points and External Remote Services (T1133) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) are the top entry points. Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified User Execution: Malicious File (T1204.002) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating desktops and laptops remain the most compromised devices (50%). Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified External Remote Services (T1133) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating rDP exploitation as a root cause. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating attackers exploit unpatched systems (52%) to move laterally. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating rDP and phishing imply use of valid accounts and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating poor visibility in cloud/hybrid environments (35%). Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Brute Force (T1110) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating rDP as a top entry point suggests credential access and Adversary-in-the-Middle (T1557) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating phishing as a top entry point. Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified Account Discovery (T1087) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating attackers targeted 25% of critical systems and Network Service Discovery (T1046) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating lateral movement via unpatched systems (52%). Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation of Remote Services (T1210) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating attackers exploit unpatched systems (52%) to move laterally and Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating rDP as a top entry point. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with high confidence (95%), supported by evidence indicating data encryption occurred in ransomware attacks, Inhibit System Recovery (T1490) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating only 13% fully restored data after an attack, and Service Stop (T1489) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating 58% of organizations halted operations. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware attacks often involve data exfiltration. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.
Sources & References
- Ponemon Institute Rankiteo Cyber Incident Details: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/ponemon-institute/incident/PONILL1769570121
- Ponemon Institute CyberSecurity Rating page: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/ponemon-institute
- Ponemon Institute Rankiteo Cyber Incident Blog Article: https://blog.rankiteo.com/ponill1769570121-ponemon-institute-illumio-ransomware-january-2024/
- Ponemon Institute CyberSecurity Score History: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/ponemon-institute/history
- Ponemon Institute CyberSecurity Incident Source: https://www.illumio.com/news/cost-of-ransomware-study
- Rankiteo A.I CyberSecurity Rating methodology: https://www.rankiteo.com/Images/rankiteo_algo.pdf
- Rankiteo TPRM Scoring methodology: https://static.rankiteo.com/model/rankiteo_tprm_methodology.pdf