UK Ministry of Defence Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (UK-5521755112425)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the UK Ministry of Defence breach identified under incident ID UK-5521755112425.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of UK Ministry of Defence's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uk-ministry-of-defence, the number of followers: 676008, the industry type: Defense and Space Manufacturing and the number of employees: 29703 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 521 and after the incident was 470 with a difference of -51 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 UK Ministry of Defence and their customers.

UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently reported "UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) Afghan Data Breach and ICO Enforcement Concerns", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

A serious data breach involving the leak of personal information of Afghan individuals who worked with British forces before the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

The disruption is felt across the environment, and exposing Personal Identifiable Information (PII) of Afghan nationals and Names of individuals who collaborated with British forces.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public statements by ICO and Letter from civil liberties groups to parliamentary committee.

The case underscores how No formal investigation by ICO; under scrutiny by parliamentary committee, teams are taking away lessons such as ICO's public sector enforcement approach lacks deterrence and fails to drive compliance, Systemic failures in data protection oversight require structural reforms and Parliamentary oversight may be necessary to restore trust in regulatory enforcement, and recommending next steps like Independent inquiry into ICO’s enforcement practices, Stronger use of legally binding penalties for severe breaches and Transparency in decision-making processes for high-risk incidents, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Letter from 73 academics, lawyers, and organizations to Chi Onwurah (Committee Chair) and Public statements by ICO defending its regulatory approach.

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 Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol: Exfiltration to Cloud Storage (T1048.003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), with evidence including data exfiltration such as Yes (leaked to unauthorized parties), and type of data compromised such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Names of Afghan collaborators. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with lower confidence (5%), supported by evidence indicating sensitivity of data such as Extremely High (life-threatening if exposed) and Defacement: External Defacement (via leaked data exposure) (T1491.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating operational impact such as Risk to lives of exposed individuals, Erosion of trust in UK government data handling. Under the Initial Access tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including vulnerability exploited such as Poor Data Management, Lack of Compliance Oversight, and motivation such as Negligence, Systemic Enforcement Failure. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including data breach such as type of data compromised such as Personally Identifiable Information (PII), Names of Afghan collaborators, and sensitivity of data such as Extremely High (life-threatening if exposed). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), with evidence including vulnerability exploited such as Poor Data Management, Lack of Compliance Oversight, and iCO’s reluctance to use enforcement powers for public sector breaches. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.