WIRED Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (GQ-CONCONWIRSELGLACONCONCON1766865597)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the WIRED breach identified under incident ID GQ-CONCONWIRSELGLACONCONCON1766865597.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of WIRED's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wired, the number of followers: 1741803, the industry type: Technology, Information and Internet and the number of employees: 526 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 738 and after the incident was 659 with a difference of -79 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 WIRED and their customers.

On 20 December 2025, Wired.com disclosed Data Breach issues under the banner "Wired.com User Data Leak by Hacker 'Lovely'".

A hacker using the alias 'Lovely' leaked personal data of over 2.3 million Wired.com users, accusing Condé Nast of ignoring security warnings.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Wired.com user database or shared Condé Nast identity platform, and exposing 2,366,576 Wired.com user records; over 40 million records across Condé Nast properties, with nearly 2,366,576 (Wired.com); over 40 million (Condé Nast properties) records at risk.

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how Ongoing (unverified by Condé Nast).

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 (T1078) with moderate to high confidence (70%), with evidence including breach of a live or archived user database, and centralized account infrastructure and Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) with moderate confidence (60%), with evidence including method of the breach remains undisclosed, and shared Condé Nast identity platform. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Credentials from Password Stores (T1555) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating no passwords exposed, but user IDs and display names leaked. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Transfer Data to Cloud Account (T1537) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating leaked on the hacking forum *Breach Stars* and Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating hacker threatened to release data from over 40M accounts. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with lower confidence (10%), supported by evidence indicating no evidence of data encryption, Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (10%), supported by evidence indicating no evidence of data destruction, and Data Manipulation: Transmitted Data Manipulation (T1565.002) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating no evidence of data manipulation. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Hide Artifacts: Hidden Files and Directories (T1564.001) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating method of the breach remains undisclosed. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.