European Commission Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (EUR1770630855)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the European Commission breach identified under incident ID EUR1770630855.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of European Commission's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/european-commission, the number of followers: 2433673, the industry type: Government Administration and the number of employees: 41562 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 822 and after the incident was 804 with a difference of -18 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 European Commission and their customers.

On 30 January 2024, European Commission disclosed Cyberattack issues under the banner "Cyberattack on EU Commission Mobile Device Management Systems".

CERT-EU detected a cyberattack targeting the European Commission’s IT infrastructure, specifically systems used for mobile device management.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Mobile device management systems, and exposing Personal data of some European Commission staff, including names and phone numbers.

In response, teams activated the incident response plan, moved swiftly to contain the threat with measures like Incident swiftly contained, and began remediation that includes Affected systems restored, while recovery efforts such as Systems restored within nine hours continue.

The case underscores how Ongoing, teams are taking away lessons such as Need to strengthen cybersecurity measures to prevent future breaches, and recommending next steps like Enhance resilience against growing cyber and hybrid threats targeting critical services and democratic institutions, with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Commitment to securing internal systems as part of broader EU cybersecurity initiatives.

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 moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating cyberattack targeting the Commission’s IT infrastructure, specifically systems used for mobile device management and Valid Accounts (T1078) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating hackers may have accessed personal data of some European Commission staff. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Unsecured Credentials (T1552) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating mobile device management systems targeted, potentially exposing credentials. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating personal data of some European Commission staff, including names and phone numbers. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating hackers may have accessed personal data of some European Commission staff. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Defacement (T1491) with lower confidence (30%), supported by evidence indicating incident swiftly contained, systems restored within nine hours. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.