Warren County, PA Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (WAR1767282894)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Warren County, PA breach identified under incident ID WAR1767282894.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Warren County, PA's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/warren-county, the number of followers: 71, the industry type: Government Administration and the number of employees: 70 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 766 and after the incident was 726 with a difference of -40 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 Warren County, PA and their customers.

Warren County recently reported "Warren County Pays $3.3M to Scammers After Fraudulent Invoices", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

Warren County paid out $3.3 million to scammers after receiving fraudulent invoices from a company they had previously done business with.

The disruption is felt across the environment, plus an estimated financial loss of $3.3 million.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public disclosure via news outlets.

The case underscores how Ongoing (criminal investigation), teams are taking away lessons such as Need for stricter verification policies for payment changes (e.g., direct phone confirmation). Supply chain attacks are common and can target even well-resourced entities, and recommending next steps like Implement multi-factor verification for payment changes (e.g., phone call to known contact), Train employees to recognize phishing/social engineering tactics and Establish clear policies for handling invoice and banking updates.

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 Phishing (T1566) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including fraudulent invoices sent to the county treasurer’s office, and attack vector such as Email (Phishing/Business Email Compromise) and Phishing: Spearphishing Link (T1566.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating invoices appeared legitimate, mimicking a vendor the county had previously worked with. Under the Resource Development tactic, the analysis identified Develop Capabilities: Malware (T1587.001) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating sophisticated supply chain scam involving fraudulent invoices and Establish Accounts: Social Media Accounts (T1585.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating impersonation of trusted vendor (implied by mimicking a vendor). Under the Execution tactic, the analysis identified User Execution: Malicious File (T1204.002) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating county officials authorized electronic transfers based on fraudulent invoices. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Hide Artifacts: Hidden Users (T1564.002) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating invoices appeared legitimate (implied deception to evade detection). Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol (T1048) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating electronic transfers totaling the full amount ($3.3M) to scammers. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.