The Washington Post Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (WAS4192541111325)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the The Washington Post breach identified under incident ID WAS4192541111325.

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 593 and after the incident was 458 with a difference of -135 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 / Ransomware Attack issues under the banner "The Washington Post Data Breach via Oracle E-Business Suite Vulnerability".

The Washington Post, a leading American news organization, experienced a data breach that exposed sensitive information of current and former employees and contractors.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Oracle E-Business Suite applications, and exposing Names, Social Security Numbers and Tax ID Numbers, with nearly 9,720 records at risk.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Applied patches for Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerability, and stakeholders are being briefed through Notification letters mailed to affected individuals (starting 2025-11-12) and Disclosure to state Attorney Generals' offices (Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont).

The case underscores how Completed (forensic investigation confirmed exploit and scope), and recommending next steps like Monitor financial accounts and credit reports for suspicious activity and Enroll in the provided 24 months of IDX identity protection services, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Notifications sent to affected employees/contractors and state regulators.

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 in Oracle E-Business Suite, and vulnerability in Oracle’s E-Business Suite software. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified OS Credential Dumping (T1003) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating compromising sensitive personal and financial data... SSNs, tax IDs, bank account numbers and Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating oracle E-Business Suite applications likely stored PII/financial data in accessible formats. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including exposed information included names, SSNs, tax IDs, bank account/routing numbers, and data exfiltration such as true. 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, and ransomware group CL0P gained unauthorized access... compromising sensitive data. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with moderate confidence (60%), with evidence including type such as Data Breach / Ransomware Attack, and ransomware strain such as CL0P and Data Destruction (T1485) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating ransomware group CL0P (commonly associated with data theft + potential destruction). Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating delayed detection (breach occurred July–August 2025, detected in September 2025) and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (65%), supported by evidence indicating delayed detection suggests possible tampering with logging/monitoring. Under the Persistence tactic, the analysis identified Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with moderate to high confidence (80%), with evidence including oracle E-Business Suite applications (cloud/enterprise system likely used for persistence), and unauthorized access between July 10, 2025, and August 22, 2025. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.