Social Security Administration Breach Incident Score: Analysis & Impact (SSA1770244647)

In this Rankiteo incident briefing, we review the Social Security Administration breach identified under incident ID SSA1770244647.

The analysis begins with a detailed overview of Social Security Administration's information like the linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ssa, the number of followers: 194555, the industry type: Government Administration and the number of employees: 46616 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 706 and after the incident was 629 with a difference of -77 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 Social Security Administration and their customers.

Social Security Administration (SSA) recently reported "Alleged Massive Social Security Data Breach", a noteworthy cybersecurity incident.

A whistleblower alleges that employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uploaded a copy of the SSA’s entire database containing names, Social Security numbers, and addresses of every American with a Social Security number to an unsecured cloud environment.

The disruption is felt across the environment, affecting Social Security Administration (SSA) database, and exposing Names, Social Security numbers, and addresses of every American with a Social Security number, with nearly Entire SSA database (all Americans with a Social Security number) records at risk.

Formal response steps have not been shared publicly yet.

The case underscores how Ongoing (allegations not confirmed by SSA).

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 high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating employees of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) uploaded a copy and Trusted Relationship (T1199) with moderate to high confidence (80%), supported by evidence indicating dOGE employees had access to SSA’s entire database. Under the Credential Access tactic, the analysis identified Cloud Instance Metadata API (T1552.005) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating uploaded...to an unsecured cloud environment. Under the Collection tactic, the analysis identified Data from Information Repositories (T1213) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating sSA’s entire database containing names, Social Security numbers, addresses. Under the Exfiltration tactic, the analysis identified Transfer Data to Cloud Account (T1537) with high confidence (90%), supported by evidence indicating uploaded a copy of the SSA’s entire database to an unsecured cloud environment and Exfiltration Over C2 Channel (T1041) with moderate to high confidence (70%), supported by evidence indicating potential misuse of the data remains unclear. Under the Impact tactic, the analysis identified Data Destruction (T1485) with lower confidence (40%), supported by evidence indicating national-security disaster with lifelong consequences and Stored Data Manipulation (T1565.001) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating exposure of sensitive Social Security Administration (SSA) data. Under the Defense Evasion tactic, the analysis identified Disable or Modify Tools (T1562.001) with moderate confidence (60%), supported by evidence indicating improper cloud storage oversight and Disabling Security Tools (T1089) with moderate confidence (50%), supported by evidence indicating unsecured cloud environment. These correlations help security teams understand the attack chain and develop appropriate defensive measures based on the observed tactics and techniques.