Harvard University Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (HAR1770230343)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Harvard University breach identified under incident ID HAR1770230343.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Harvard University's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-university, the number of followers: 2772765, the industry type: Higher Education and the number of employees: 33569 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 833 and after the incident was 730 with a difference of -103 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 Harvard University and their customers.

Harvard University recently reported "ShinyHunters Leaks Data from Harvard and UPenn After Ransom Demands Rejected", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

The hacking group ShinyHunters has released over one million records each from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), following data breaches last year that the institutions confirmed but did not pay ransom to resolve.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Alumni and development systems, and exposing Over 1 million records per institution, with nearly Over 1 million per institution records at risk.

In response, and stakeholders are being briefed through Public disclosures, alumni notifications.

The case underscores how Ongoing (UPenn analyzing released data), with advisories going out to stakeholders covering Alumni notifications.

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 Phishing (T1566) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including attributed to a social engineering attack, and voice phishing attack that targeted alumni systems and Phishing: Spearphishing Voice (T1566.004) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating voice phishing attack (Vishing) targeting alumni systems. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Compromise Accounts (T1586) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating hackers had previously emailed alumni from official university addresses. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Local System (T1005) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating stolen data included email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, donation histories and Data from Information Repositories (T1213) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating systems tied to development and alumni activities. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with high confidence (90%), with evidence including shinyHunters published the datasets on their leak site, and data exfiltration such as Yes. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Encrypted for Impact (T1486) with moderate confidence (50%), with evidence including type such as Ransomware, and ransom demanded such as Yes and Defacement (T1491) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating shinyHunters published the datasets on their leak site after ransom refusal. Under the Command and Control tactic, the analysis identified Application Layer Protocol (T1071) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating hackers emailed alumni from official university addresses. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.