Networking giant Cisco has admitted a cyber-security breach via the "successful compromise" of an employee's personal Google account, saying that no data was compromised.
The attacker conducted a series of sophisticated voice phishing attacks under the guise of various trusted organisations attempting to convince the victim to accept multi-factor authentication (MFA) push notifications initiated by the attacker, the company's own Cisco Talos threat research arm revealed in a blog post.
The incident occurred in May and since then, the company had been working to remediate the attack.
"During the investigation, it was determined that a Cisco employee's credentials were compromised after an attacker gained control of a personal Google account where credentials saved in the victim's browser were being synchronised," wrote Cisco Talos.
The company said it has not identified any evidence suggesting that the attacker gained access to critical internal systems, such as those related to product development, code signing, etc.
"The threat actor was successfully removed from the environment and displayed persistence, repeatedly attempting to regain access in the weeks following the attack; however, these attempts were unsuccessful," said Cisco.
According to the company, the attack was conducted by an adversary that has been previously identified as an initial access broker (IAB) with ties to the UNC2447 cybercrime gang, Lapsus$ threat actor group, and Yanluowang ransomware operators.
Lapsus$ is a threat actor group that is reported to have been responsible for several previous notable breaches of corporate environments.
Cisco said it implemented a company-wide password reset immediately upon learning of the incident.
The company did not observe ransomware deployment in this attack.
In many cases, threat actors have been observed targeting the backup infrastructure in an attempt to further remove an organisation's ability to recover following an attack.
"Ensuring that backups are offline and periodically tested can help mitigate this risk and ensure an organisation's ability to effectively recover following an attack," said the company.
--IANS
na/svn/
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
You’ve hit your limit of {{free_limit}} free articles this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
Already subscribed? Log in
Subscribe to read the full story →
Quarterly Starter
₹900
3 Months
₹300/Month
Smart Essential
₹2,700
1 Year
₹225/Month
Super Saver
₹3,900
2 Years
₹162/Month
Renews automatically, cancel anytime
Here’s what’s included in our digital subscription plans
Access to Exclusive Premium Stories Online
Over 30 behind the paywall stories daily, handpicked by our editors for subscribers


Complimentary Access to The New York Times
News, Games, Cooking, Audio, Wirecutter & The Athletic
Business Standard Epaper
Digital replica of our daily newspaper — with options to read, save, and share


Curated Newsletters
Insights on markets, finance, politics, tech, and more delivered to your inbox
Market Analysis & Investment Insights
In-depth market analysis & insights with access to The Smart Investor


Archives
Repository of articles and publications dating back to 1997
Ad-free Reading
Uninterrupted reading experience with no advertisements


Seamless Access Across All Devices
Access Business Standard across devices — mobile, tablet, or PC, via web or app