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Scrape Timestamp (UTC): 2023-11-02 15:43:15.724

Source: https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/02/okta_staff_personal_data/

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Okta tells 5,000 of its own staff that their data was accessed in third-party breach. The hits keep on coming for troubled ID management biz. Okta has sent out breach notifications to almost 5,000 employees, warning them that miscreants breached one of its third-party vendors and stole a file containing staff names, social security numbers, and health or medical insurance plan numbers. The third-party, Rightway Healthcare, helps people compare healthcare providers and rates, and this includes Okta employees and their families. >According to the notification, an "unauthorized" crook broke into Rightway's IT environment on September 23. The service informed Okta about the intrusion on October 12, nearly three weeks later. "Upon discovering the incident, we promptly launched an investigation and reviewed the affected file to determine the extent of the impact to our current and former employees, and their dependents," Okta cybersecurity director and attorney Ronald Anderson wrote [PDF]. While the criminals scooped up a bunch of data belonging to 4,961 individuals, "we have no evidence to suggest that your personal information has been misused against you," the identity services provider assured its employees. Still, as an "added precaution," all those affected will receive two years of free credit monitoring, identity restoration, and fraud detection services from Experian's IdentityWorks product. Though this breach seems to be limited to Okta employees, the identity services providers' customers have also been hit with their share of security snafus over the past few months. Back in August, Okta said "multiple" customers in the US had reported phishing attempts targeting their IT service teams in attempts to compromise user accounts with administrator permissions. These social engineering attacks began in July, and things went downhill from there as the victims' names started becoming public. These customers included Las Vegas hotel and casino giants MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment. The latter reportedly paid a $15 million ransom demand to make the pain stop – but not before the intruders accessed data belonging to tens of thousands of customers. MGM said the attack cost it at least $100 million after it refused to pay up. In October, Okta said it experienced a security breach that gave intruders access to sensitive customer files used for solving support tickets. In an October 20 blog post, Okta CSO David Bradbury said the criminals used stolen credentials to gain access to Okta's support case management system and may have stolen HTTP Archive (HAR) files used to replicate browser activity for troubleshooting. A few days later, 1Password said it was one of the Okta customers hit by the latest breach – but assured its customers that their login details are safe.

Daily Brief Summary

DATA BREACH // Okta Notifies Employees of Personal Data Breach via Third-Party Vendor

Almost 5,000 Okta employees have been notified of a data breach that occurred via a third-party vendor, Rightway Healthcare. The stolen data includes staff names, social security numbers, and health or medical insurance plan numbers.

Unauthorized access into Rightway's IT systems occurred on September 23, with notification to Okta received on October 12.

Okta has launched an investigation to understand the extent of the impact on current and former employees and, while there is no evidence of misuse of personal data, is offering two years of free credit monitoring and fraud detection services from Experian's IdentityWorks as a precaution.

The incident, impacting Okta employees, follows recent security issues impacting Okta's customers. In August, multiple US customers including MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment reported phishing attempts aimed at compromising user accounts with administrative permissions.

More recently, in October, a data breach gave criminals access to sensitive customer files used for solving support tickets within Okta's support case management system. OnePassword confirmed it was among the customers impacted but assured its customers that their login details remained safe.