Princeton University Graduate School Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (PRI2493024111825)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Princeton University Graduate School breach identified under incident ID PRI2493024111825.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Princeton University Graduate School's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/princeton-university-graduate-school, the number of followers: 1677, the industry type: Higher Education and the number of employees: 5 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 767 and after the incident was 688 with a difference of -79 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 Princeton University Graduate School and their customers.

On 15 November 2023, Princeton University disclosed Data Breach (Unauthorized Access) issues under the banner "Princeton University Advancement Database Breach".

Princeton University confirmed that an Advancement database containing sensitive personal information about alums, donors, faculty members, students, parents, and other community members was compromised by outside actors.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Advancement database, and exposing Names, Email addresses and Telephone numbers.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Attackers removed from systems within 24 hours, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public disclosure on 2023-11-15, Direct notification to potentially affected individuals and Advisory on vigilance against phishing/social engineering.

The case underscores how Ongoing (coordinating with external cybersecurity experts and law enforcement; scope and attacker identity not yet determined), and recommending next steps like Monitor personal information for signs of identity theft or fraud, Remain vigilant against phishing/social engineering attacks leveraging breach details and Verify suspicious communications purporting to be from Princeton University via known contacts, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Direct notification to potentially affected individuals (2023-11-15) and Public advisory on phishing risks and verification procedures.

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 unauthorized access to Advancement database; no attack vector specified and Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating advancement database compromised; no vulnerability specified but implies web/app exposure. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (95%), supported by evidence indicating names, email addresses, phone numbers, home/business addresses, fundraising/donation records accessed. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration such as Unknown (investigation ongoing) implies possible transfer of collected data. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Phishing for Information (T1598) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating heightened risk of phishing/social engineering attacks warned by Princeton; exposed PII enables targeted campaigns and Identity Theft (T1659) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating identity theft risk such as Moderate (personal identifiers exposed) per incident impact assessment. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating attackers removed from systems within 24 hours suggests possible cleanup to evade detection. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.