The Washington Post Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (WAS0092300111325)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the The Washington Post breach identified under incident ID WAS0092300111325.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of The Washington Post's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/washingtonpost, the number of followers: 1610969, the industry type: Newspaper Publishing and the number of employees: 3708 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 732 and after the incident was 669 with a difference of -63 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 The Washington Post and their customers.

On 27 October 2025, The Washington Post disclosed data breach, extortion and zero-day exploit issues under the banner "Washington Post Oracle E-Business Suite Data Theft and Extortion Attempt".

The Washington Post notified nearly 10,000 employees and contractors that their personal and financial data was exposed in an attack exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle E-Business Suite.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Oracle E-Business Suite (HR, finance, supply chain modules), and exposing full names, bank account numbers and routing numbers, with nearly 9720 records at risk.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, and began remediation that includes investigation with external experts and collaboration with Oracle, while recovery efforts such as 12-month free identity protection (IDX) for affected individuals and recommendations for credit freezes and fraud alerts continue, and stakeholders are being briefed through notification letters to affected individuals and public disclosure.

The case underscores how Completed (as of 2025-10-27), and recommending next steps like Apply patches for CVE-2025-61884 promptly, Monitor Oracle E-Business Suite for unauthorized access and Enhance identity protection for employees (e.g., credit freezes, fraud alerts), with advisories going out to stakeholders covering 12-month identity protection (IDX) offered to affected individuals.

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 Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including exploitation of zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2025-61884) in Oracle E-Business Suite, and unauthorized access to Oracle E-Business Suite. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating access the Post’s internal ERP system, stealing sensitive employee and contractor data and Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating hR/finance systems compromised; likely stored PII/credentials in ERP databases. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating stealing sensitive employee and contractor data—including full names, bank account/routing numbers, SSNs. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol: Exfiltration Over Unencrypted/Obfuscated Non-C2 Protocol (T1048.003) with moderate to high confidence (85%), with evidence including data exfiltration such as true from Oracle E-Business Suite (HR/finance modules), and clop ransomware group known for exfiltrating data prior to extortion. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware strain such as Clop (suspected) (though no encryption confirmed in report) and Data Theft for Extortion (T1659) with high confidence (95%), with evidence including extortion attempt in late September 2025, and ransom demanded such as true. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating investigation concluded on October 27, 2025 (suggests potential log/trace cleanup by actors) and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating lack of proactive monitoring for novel exploits (possible evasion of detection). Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Account Manipulation: Additional Cloud Credentials (T1098.003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating unauthorized access to Oracle E-Business Suite (potential credential abuse for persistence). These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.