Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (SUL1775464051)
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Rankiteo Score Impact Analysis
Key Highlights From The Incident Analysis
- Timeline of Sullivan Alumni Association's Cyber Attack 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 Sullivan Alumni Association 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 Sullivan Alumni Association breach identified under incident ID SUL1775464051.
The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Sullivan Alumni Association's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sullivan-upper-school, the number of followers: 1639, the industry type: Education Administration Programs and the number of employees: 59 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 761 and after the incident was 732 with a difference of -29 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 Sullivan Alumni Association and their customers.
On 04 April 2024, Education Authority (EA) disclosed Cyberattack issues under the banner "Northern Ireland Schools Face Ongoing Disruption Following Education Authority Cyberattack".
A cyberattack on the Education Authority (EA) in Northern Ireland has left thousands of pupils and staff unable to access critical IT systems, disrupting coursework, revision, and communication ahead of exam season.
The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting C2K network, online education services.
In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Full password reset across the network, and began remediation that includes Phased restoration of systems, prioritizing post-primary schools, while recovery efforts such as Teams working through the weekend; schools opening early for exam-year students continue, and stakeholders are being briefed through Collaboration with Information Commissioner’s Office and other authorities; updates to schools.
The case underscores how Ongoing, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Collaboration with authorities; phased recovery plan.
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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating attack targeted the C2K network, a centralized platform managing all online services and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating full password reset across the network mandated as a critical security measure. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Service Stop (T1489) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating thousands of pupils and staff unable to access critical IT systems and Defacement (T1491) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating disruption to coursework, revision, and communication ahead of exam season. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Brute Force (T1110) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating full password reset mandated; suggests potential credential compromise and OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating attack on centralized C2K network may have accessed stored credentials. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating attackers may have used compromised accounts to evade detection and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating disruption to IT systems suggests possible defense impairment. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating eA collaborating with ICO to assess the breach; data exfiltration possible. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.
Sources & References
- Sullivan Alumni Association Rankiteo Cyber Incident Details: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/sullivan-upper-school/incident/SUL1775464051
- Sullivan Alumni Association CyberSecurity Rating page: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/sullivan-upper-school
- Sullivan Alumni Association Rankiteo Cyber Incident Blog Article: https://blog.rankiteo.com/sul1775464051-sullivan-upper-school-cyber-attack-april-2026/
- Sullivan Alumni Association CyberSecurity Score History: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/sullivan-upper-school/history
- Sullivan Alumni Association CyberSecurity Incident Source: https://thecyberexpress.com/education-authority-cyberattack-ni-schools/
- 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