| Recurring |
one_organization, multiple_organization |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) has happened again at multiple organizations. The incident involved a series of breaches in December and January that affected dozens of companies and government organizations worldwide [112240]. The vulnerabilities in Accellion's FTA were exploited by hackers, leading to data breaches and extortion attempts. Known victims included the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the state of Washington, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Singaporean telecom Singtel, the law firm Jones Day, the grocery store chain Kroger, the University of Colorado, and cybersecurity firm Qualys. The incident also resulted in multiple lawsuits against Accellion in Northern California and Washington state court [112240].
(b) The software failure incident related to the Accellion FTA has also happened at multiple organizations. The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated that actors exploited the vulnerabilities in Accellion's FTA to attack federal and state government organizations, as well as private industry organizations in various sectors such as medical, legal, telecommunications, finance, and energy [112240]. The incident highlighted the widespread impact of the vulnerabilities in Accellion's FTA, affecting organizations across different sectors and industries. |
| Phase (Design/Operation) |
design, operation |
(a) The software failure incident related to the design phase can be attributed to the vulnerabilities in Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA) that were exploited by hackers. Accellion released patches to address these vulnerabilities in late December and January, but the attackers were able to exploit these flaws to breach dozens of companies and government organizations worldwide [112240].
(b) The software failure incident related to the operation phase can be seen in the slow response of Accellion to communicate the severity of the vulnerabilities to its users. Incident responders mentioned that Accellion was slow to raise the alarm about the potential risk to FTA users, leading to a large time window for active exploitation by the attackers [112240]. |
| Boundary (Internal/External) |
within_system, outside_system |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) can be categorized as within_system. The vulnerabilities in the FTA product were exploited by hackers to carry out a widespread breach affecting numerous organizations [112240]. Accellion had released patches to address the vulnerabilities, but the incident highlighted the risks associated with using legacy network equipment like FTA, which was at the end of its life [112240]. The incident also raised concerns about the potential catastrophic impact if similar vulnerabilities were to occur in public cloud services, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the security of both on-premises and cloud-based systems [112240]. |
| Nature (Human/Non-human) |
non-human_actions, human_actions |
(a) The software failure incident related to non-human actions was primarily due to a series of breaches in Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA) caused by a cluster of vulnerabilities in the network equipment offering. Hackers exploited these vulnerabilities to breach dozens of companies and government organizations worldwide, leading to extortion threats by the ransomware group Clop [112240].
(b) The software failure incident related to human actions involved the slow response and communication from Accellion regarding the severity of the vulnerabilities in FTA. Incident responders mentioned that Accellion was slow to raise the alarm about the potential risk to FTA users, leading to a large time window for active exploitation. This delay in communication contributed to the widespread intrusions and subsequent lawsuits faced by the company [112240]. |
| Dimension (Hardware/Software) |
hardware, software |
(a) The software failure incident related to hardware:
- The incident involving Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA) was due to vulnerabilities in the hardware equipment offered by Accellion. Hackers exploited these vulnerabilities in the FTA, which is essentially a dedicated computer used to move large and sensitive files within a network [112240].
- The article mentions that Accellion devices sit on-premises, meaning attackers had to seek out vulnerable pieces of equipment within targets' networks. This highlights the hardware aspect of the software failure incident [112240].
(b) The software failure incident related to software:
- The software failure incident was primarily caused by vulnerabilities in the software of Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA). The vulnerabilities in the software allowed hackers to exploit the system and carry out breaches in multiple organizations and government entities [112240].
- Accellion released patches to address the vulnerabilities in the software of the FTA, indicating that the root cause of the incident was related to software flaws [112240]. |
| Objective (Malicious/Non-malicious) |
malicious |
(a) The software failure incident related to the Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) breaches can be categorized as malicious. The incident involved hackers exploiting vulnerabilities in the Accellion FTA to breach numerous companies and government organizations worldwide, leading to extortion attempts by the ransomware group Clop [112240].
The hackers behind the incident were motivated by criminal profit, as opposed to espionage purposes seen in other recent nation-state hacking sprees targeting different software systems. The attackers targeted various sectors including government, medical, legal, telecommunications, finance, and energy, extorting money from victim organizations to prevent the public release of exfiltrated information [112240]. |
| Intent (Poor/Accidental Decisions) |
unknown |
(a) The intent of the software failure incident:
- The software failure incident involving Accellion's File Transfer Appliance (FTA) was not due to poor decisions but rather due to the exploitation of vulnerabilities by hackers for criminal profit [112240].
- The incident was carried out by hacking groups motivated by criminal profit, as opposed to espionage purposes seen in other hacking sprees [112240].
- The hackers targeted multiple federal and state government organizations, as well as private industry organizations, for extortion purposes [112240].
- Accellion had been working for three years to transition customers away from FTA onto its new platform, Kiteworks, indicating a proactive approach to addressing the end-of-life product [112240]. |
| Capability (Incompetence/Accidental) |
development_incompetence, unknown |
(a) The software failure incident related to development incompetence is evident in the Accellion data breach incident. Accellion released a patch in late December and more fixes in January to address vulnerabilities in its network equipment offerings. However, the company faced criticism for being slow to raise the alarm about the potential risk to users, with incident responders mentioning that the severity of the situation wasn't being effectively communicated by Accellion [112240].
(b) The software failure incident related to accidental factors is not explicitly mentioned in the provided article. |
| Duration |
temporary |
The software failure incident related to the Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) vulnerabilities can be considered as a temporary failure. This is because the incident was caused by specific vulnerabilities in the FTA product that were exploited by hackers, leading to breaches in multiple organizations [112240]. The vulnerabilities were addressed through patches released by Accellion in late December and January to mitigate the ongoing exploitation [112240]. The incident was not a permanent failure caused by inherent flaws in the software but rather due to specific vulnerabilities that were exploited by malicious actors. |
| Behaviour |
crash, omission, value, other |
(a) crash: The software failure incident related to the Accellion File Transfer Appliance (FTA) can be categorized as a crash. The vulnerabilities in the FTA led to breaches in multiple organizations, causing the system to lose its state and not perform its intended functions properly. This resulted in unauthorized access to sensitive data and subsequent extortion attempts by hackers [112240].
(b) omission: The software failure incident can also be categorized as an omission. The vulnerabilities in the Accellion FTA caused the system to omit performing its intended functions of securely transferring large and sensitive files within a network. This omission led to the exposure of sensitive data and subsequent extortion demands by the ransomware group Clop [112240].
(c) timing: The software failure incident is not specifically related to timing issues where the system performs its intended functions correctly but at the wrong time.
(d) value: The software failure incident can be categorized as a value failure. The vulnerabilities in the Accellion FTA caused the system to perform its intended functions incorrectly by allowing unauthorized access to sensitive data, leading to data breaches and extortion attempts by hackers [112240].
(e) byzantine: The software failure incident is not specifically related to a byzantine behavior where the system behaves erroneously with inconsistent responses and interactions.
(f) other: The software failure incident can also be categorized as a failure due to a security flaw. The vulnerabilities in the Accellion FTA exposed a security flaw in the system, allowing hackers to exploit it for unauthorized access to sensitive data. This flaw resulted in data breaches and extortion attempts by the ransomware group Clop [112240]. |