Learnings From Accenture’s Cybersecurity Incident

No one seems immune to ransomware attacks. Be it big organizations or small enterprises — everyone is at risk. In August, Accenture, a well-known Ireland-based multinational company that provides technology consulting and professional services, was hit by a cybersecurity incident alongside London Drugs.

Accenture is a Fortune Global 500 company that generated revenues of $44.33 billion in 2020 and has 569,000+ employees.

The irony is that Accenture offers cybersecurity services to its clients and has everything in place to safeguard its critical information. Yet, the company faced a severe cyberattack and data was stolen. The attack was planned by the ransomware gang LockBit.  Accenture had 2,500 compromised computers of employees and partners, this information was certainly used by threat actors.

Accenture Cybersecurity Incident: What Happened?

Initially, Accenture declined to give details on when the incident occurred, its duration, or the attack type.

However, the company later told the media that their IT security team had identified an irregular activity in one of its environments. As a corrective action, the company stated that it had isolated the affected servers while fully restoring them through backups created earlier. According to the company, this malicious activity had no impact on its operations or its clients’ systems.

Later, LockBit claimed on its darknet ‘wall of shame’ extortion website that it had removed an unstated amount of data from Accenture, which it will sell or make public.

Kevin Beaumont, heading the security operations center of the London-based fashion retail giant Arcadia Group, took to his Twitter handle and reported that LockBit has followed through on its threat and has published some of the stolen information.

LockBit: The Attacker Behind the Accenture Cybersecurity Incident

LockBit entered the cyber world in September 2019. This ransomware group was initially known as ABCD ransomware because it placed a .abcd extension on its encrypted files. It partnered with the Maze ransomware group in May 2020. In August 2020, it began attacks on mid-sized US companies.

LockBit launched the LockBit 2.0 ransomware-as-a-service operation in June 2021 and started an advertising campaign to recruit new affiliates. LockBit and its affiliates have been very active this year, evident from the recent cybersecurity incident Accenture experienced.

Since the inception of LockBit, there have been 9,955 submissions about LockBit to ID Ransomware. ID Ransomware is an online tool meant to help ransomware victims identify the specific malware involved in their attack. But the number of submissions tells only a part of the real story because just 25% of the victims report a cybersecurity incident to ID Ransomware.

What are the takeaways from Accenture’s nightmare?

When it comes to Accenture’s cybersecurity incident, companies can learn that cybersecurity is extremely important. Completing thorough penetration tests on a regular basis could have prevented the incident. Preventative measures are key when it comes to protecting your assets and ensuring that your data does not get into the hands of cybercriminals. Cybercriminal activity within your network not only could mean financial loss, but also loss of customers and business reputation. 

There are a lot of enterprises and SMBs that prefer to outsource their penetration testing in order to gain a fresh perspective of the vulnerabilities and gaps that may be within your IT infrastructure. We at Packetlabs can offer you the best-in-class penetration services and solutions that will help you avoid a cybersecurity incident like what Accenture faced. We also offer application security testing, objective-based penetration testing, managed security QA, purple teaming, compromise assessment, and cyber maturity assessment services to help you keep your data and organization safe.

Endnote

With cybersecurity incidents occurring with even big, reputed organizations that have vast resources at their disposal, protecting your data and keeping it safe has become even more crucial. When big organizations aren’t safe, what can SMBs possibly do?

They can choose an external vendor like Packetlabs that helps them take additional security steps and go the extra mile to safeguard their critical data and information.

We understand that every business, be it small or big, has to manage many things while sticking to a budget. This is why we offer efficient penetration testing services at an affordable price to make security accessible to everyone. You can request a free quote, and we will get in touch with you within 48 hours.