Cyber Security Threat Summary:
“A multinational company headquartered in Houston, Texas, Sysco is one of the largest distributors of food products, kitchen equipment, smallware, and tabletop products to restaurants, lodging establishments, healthcare and education organizations, and other entities” (Security Week, 2023). The company initially disclosed the incident in early May, in a Form 10-Q filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), when it revealed that the data breach was identified on March 5, 2023, but said that the attackers likely had unauthorized access to its systems starting January 14, 2023.

Sysco says during this attack time frame, attackers were able to steal company data related to the operation of the business, customers, employees and personal data. The food distributor is now in the process of informing current and former employees that their personal information such as first and last name, social security numbers, account numbers, and other information provided for payroll purposes may have been compromised in the attack.

Security Officer Comments:
The letter to impacted employees says, “the threat actor gained access to our systems without authorization and claimed to have acquired certain data.” While some have suggested the attack to be ransomware related, the attack did not appear to have any impact on operational systems or business functions, and did not result in service interruptions. Typically ransomware operators would want to target operational systems to pressure victims into paying their ransom demands. We have observed that many ransomware groups are changing tactics to only steal and threaten organizations with their stolen data, and have not been encrypting files and folders. So it’s possible a ransomware group was still to blame for the attack.

Sysco is working with law enforcement and says the attack is still under active investigation. While a detailed list of victims was not released, the company told the Maine Attorney General’s Office that more than 126,000 individuals were impacted.

“Sysco may face a class action suit as a result of this incident. Last week, consumer rights law firm Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz announced that it’s investigating the data breach on behalf of the impacted individuals” (Security Week, 2023).

Suggested Correction(s):
Backup your data, system images, and configurations, regularly test them, and keep the backups offline: Ensure that backups are regularly tested and that they are not connected to the business network, as many ransomware variants try to find and encrypt or delete accessible backups. Maintaining current backups offline is critical because if your network data is encrypted with ransomware, your organization can restore systems.

Update and patch systems promptly: This includes maintaining the security of operating systems, applications, and firmware in a timely manner. Consider using a centralized patch management system; use a risk- based assessment strategy to drive your patch management program.

Test your incident response plan: There's nothing that shows the gaps in plans more than testing them. Run through some core questions and use those to build an incident response plan: Are you able to sustain business operations without access to certain systems? For how long? Would you turn off your manufacturing operations if business systems such as billing were offline?

Check Your Security Team's Work: Use a 3rd party pen tester to test the security of your systems and your ability to defend against a sophisticated attack. Many ransomware criminals are aggressive and sophisticated and will find the equivalent of unlocked doors.

Segment your networks: There's been a recent shift in ransomware attacks – from stealing data to disrupting operations. It's critically important that your corporate business functions and manufacturing/production operations are separated and that you carefully filter and limit internet access to operational networks, identify links between these networks and develop workarounds or manual controls to ensure ICS networks can be isolated and continue operating if your corporate network is compromised. Regularly test contingency plans such as manual controls so that safety critical functions can be maintained during a cyber incident.

Train employees: Email remains the most vulnerable attack vector for organizations. Users should be trained how to avoid and spot phishing emails. Multi Factor authentication can help prevent malicious access to sensitive services.

Link(s):
https://www.securityweek.com/food-distributor-sysco-says-cyberattack-affects-126000-individuals/