WestJet Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (WES1031510111025)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the WestJet breach identified under incident ID WES1031510111025.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of WestJet's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/westjet, the number of followers: 241869, the industry type: Airlines and Aviation and the number of employees: 8654 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 695 and after the incident was 670 with a difference of -25 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 WestJet and their customers.

On 13 June 2024, WestJet disclosed Cyberattack, Data Breach and Social Engineering issues under the banner "WestJet Cyberattack Compromises Personal Data of 1.2 Million Customers".

Canadian airline WestJet disclosed a cyberattack in June 2024 that disrupted internal systems, made the WestJet app unavailable, and compromised the personal information of 1.2 million customers, including passports and ID documents.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Internal Systems, WestJet App and Windows Networks, and exposing True, with nearly 1,200,000 records at risk.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Unspecified (Claimed as 'Appropriate Measures'), and began remediation that includes Password Reset Protocols Review, Citrix Security Enhancements and Microsoft Cloud Security Updates, while recovery efforts such as System Restoration and Customer Notification Process continue, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public Disclosure (June 13), Customer Notifications (September 15) and Regulatory Filings (Maine AG Office).

The case underscores how Ongoing (FBI Involved, Full Scope Not Yet Determined as of September 2024), teams are taking away lessons such as Social engineering remains a critical attack vector, especially via password resets, Third-party access points (e.g., Citrix) require robust monitoring and hardening and Cloud environments (e.g., Microsoft) must be segmented and protected against lateral movement, and recommending next steps like Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for all password reset and privileged access workflows, Conduct regular social engineering drills and employee training to mitigate human error risks and Enhance logging and monitoring for Citrix and other remote access gateways, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Customers advised to monitor for identity theft and enroll in free protection by November 30, 2024.

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 Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts (T1078.004) with high confidence (95%), supported by evidence indicating password reset of an employee via Citrix to access Microsoft cloud networks and Phishing: Spearphishing Link (T1566.002) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating social engineering (password reset of an employee via Citrix). Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Unsecured Credentials: Credentials In Files (T1552.001) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating weak Password Reset Mechanisms exploited for initial access and Account Discovery: Cloud Account (T1087.004) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating compromised Windows and Microsoft cloud networks post-initial access. Under the Lateral Movement tactic, the analysis identified Remote Services: SMB/Windows Admin Shares (T1021.002) with moderate to high confidence (85%), supported by evidence indicating compromised Windows and Microsoft cloud networks via Citrix and Internal Spearphishing (T1534) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating likely backdoors established for lateral movement. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (95%), supported by evidence indicating exposed data included full names, dates of birth, mailing addresses, passports/government IDs, travel documents and Data from Cloud Storage (T1530) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating microsoft cloud networks compromised; PII and travel documents exfiltrated. 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 (80%), supported by evidence indicating data exfiltration such as true with no mention of encryption and Automated Exfiltration: Traffic Duplication (T1020.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating 1.2 million customer records exfiltrated systematically. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Indicator Removal: File Deletion (T1070.004) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating backdoors established implies cleanup of initial access artifacts and Impair Defenses: Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate to high confidence (75%), supported by evidence indicating citrix Vulnerability exploited; likely disabled logging/monitoring. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating westJet app unavailable (potential service disruption) and Resource Hijacking: Cloud Resources (T1496.002) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating microsoft cloud networks compromised for data exfiltration. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.