Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (US-NOZTRE1774333876)
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Rankiteo Score Impact Analysis
Key Highlights From The Incident Analysis
- Timeline of U.S. Department of Homeland Security'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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security breach identified under incident ID US-NOZTRE1774333876.
The analysis begins with a detailed overview of U.S. Department of Homeland Security's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/us-department-of-homeland-security, the number of followers: 988518, the industry type: Government Administration and the number of employees: 37484 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 709 and after the incident was 693 with a difference of -16 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 U.S. Department of Homeland Security and their customers.
On 30 June 2024, a cybersecurity incident called "Iranian Cyberattacks Surge 133% Amid Geopolitical Tensions, Targeting U.S. Critical Infrastructure" came to light.
Nozomi Networks Labs reported a sharp escalation in cyberattacks linked to Iranian threat groups, with a 133% increase in incidents during May and June 2024 compared to the previous two months.
The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Transportation, Manufacturing and Critical Infrastructure, and exposing True.
In response, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Isolation of OT/ICS assets from public internet access.
The case underscores how Ongoing, teams are taking away lessons such as Heightened risk to critical infrastructure and defense industrial base (DIB) due to geopolitical tensions. Need for enhanced monitoring and isolation of OT/ICS assets, and recommending next steps like Monitor for threats from Iranian state-sponsored groups, Isolate OT/ICS assets from public internet access and Leverage threat intelligence feeds for detection, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering U.S. security agencies advised critical infrastructure operators to monitor for threats and isolate OT/ICS assets.
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 targeting U.S. critical infrastructure via operational technology (OT) exploitation, External Remote Services (T1133) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating oT/ICS assets isolated from public internet access as containment measure, and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating long-term access within government and critical infrastructure networks. Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified Exploitation for Client Execution (T1203) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating orpaCrab (IOCONTROL) malware deployed in attacks and Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating state-sponsored groups known for malware-based execution. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating foxKitten known for espionage and long-term access in networks and External Remote Services (T1133) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating groups maintained access across multiple regions and sectors. Under the Privilege Escalation tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating targeting of defense industrial base (DIB) and critical infrastructure and Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating oT exploitation suggests potential privilege escalation. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Masquerading (T1036) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating state-sponsored groups reuse IP addresses from prior attacks and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating oT/ICS assets isolated post-compromise suggests evasion tactics. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating long-term access and espionage imply credential harvesting and Brute Force (T1110) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating targeting of high-value sectors suggests credential attacks. Under the Discovery tactic, the analysis identified File and Directory Discovery (T1083) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating intelligence gathering and espionage objectives and Network Service Scanning (T1046) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating oT exploitation and critical infrastructure targeting. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration confirmed in ransomware incidents and Automated Collection (T1119) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating espionage and intelligence gathering motivations. Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Application Layer Protocol (T1071) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating state-sponsored groups reuse IP addresses for C2 and Proxy (T1090) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating broader geopolitical and intelligence-driven agenda. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration confirmed in ransomware incidents and Exfiltration Over Web Service (T1567) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating state-sponsored groups with global reach. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating orpaCrab (IOCONTROL) ransomware deployed, Endpoint Denial of Service (T1499) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating disruption of critical infrastructure and industrial sectors, and Data Manipulation (T1565) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating oT exploitation suggests potential manipulation risks. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.
Sources & References
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Rankiteo Cyber Incident Details: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/us-department-of-homeland-security/incident/US-NOZTRE1774333876
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security CyberSecurity Rating page: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/us-department-of-homeland-security
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security Rankiteo Cyber Incident Blog Article: https://blog.rankiteo.com/us-noztre1774333876-nozomi-networks-cyberav3ngers-homeland-justice-cyber-attack-july-2025/
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security CyberSecurity Score History: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/us-department-of-homeland-security/history
- U.S. Department of Homeland Security CyberSecurity Incident Source: https://industrialcyber.co/reports/nozomi-finds-133-surge-in-iranian-cyberattacks-targeting-us-as-transportation-and-manufacturing-most-affected/
- 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