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Okta mentioned Tuesday {that a} forensic investigation that it commissioned discovered that the hacker group Lapsus$ accessed two lively buyer tenants through the January breach of a third-party assist agency.
The risk actor “actively managed” a workstation belonging to at least one engineer on the assist agency, Sitel, for 25 consecutive minutes on January 21, throughout which period it accessed the 2 prospects, Okta mentioned in a weblog put up.
Whereas Okta had beforehand mentioned that as many as 366 prospects could have been impacted within the breach, the findings from the brand new investigation level to the precise affect being “considerably lower than the utmost potential affect that Okta initially shared.”
The findings are primarily based on a “thorough investigation [by] our inside safety consultants, in addition to a globally acknowledged cybersecurity agency whom we engaged to provide a forensic report,” Okta mentioned.
The id and entry administration agency mentioned this concludes its investigation into the breach.
Throughout the 25-minute window of time, “the risk actor accessed two lively buyer tenants inside the SuperUser software (whom we have now individually notified), and considered restricted further info in sure different functions like Slack and Jira that can’t be used to carry out actions in Okta buyer tenants,” Okta mentioned.
The corporate didn’t specify what actions had been taken by Lapsus$ whereas it accessed the 2 prospects, however famous a number of issues that the risk actor didn’t do throughout that interval. “The risk actor was unable to efficiently carry out any configuration adjustments, MFA or password resets, or buyer assist ‘impersonation’ occasions,” Okta mentioned within the put up. “The risk actor was unable to authenticate on to any Okta accounts.”
The findings displaying that the Lapsus$ breach was restricted to January 21 is available in distinction to the preliminary disclosure, primarily based on a forensic report commissioned by Sitel, that suggested the attacker had entry to a assist engineer’s laptop computer from January 16-21.
Sluggish to reveal?
Okta didn’t disclose the incident till March 22, and solely then in response to Lapsus$ posting screenshots on Telegram as proof of the breach. The shortage of immediate disclosure ignited a debate within the cybersecurity neighborhood, with some criticizing the seller for its dealing with of the breach.
Okta finally said it “made a mistake” in its response to the incident, and “ought to have extra actively and forcefully compelled info” about what occurred within the breach.
Within the weblog put up Tuesday, Okta mentioned that it acknowledges “how very important it’s to take steps to rebuild belief inside our broader buyer base and ecosystem.”
“The conclusions from the ultimate forensic report don’t reduce our willpower to take corrective actions designed to stop comparable occasions and enhance our capability to answer safety incidents,” Okta mentioned. “That begins with reviewing our safety processes and pushing for brand spanking new methods to speed up updates from third events and internally for potential points, each huge and small. We are going to proceed to work to evaluate potential dangers and, if obligatory, talk with our prospects as quick as we are able to.”
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