Social EngineeringEducationEducationPhishingStolen CredentialsMulti-Stage ChainData ExfiltratedCustomer Data InvolvedEmployee Data InvolvedIdentity (basic)Government IDFinancial accountFinancial credentialsPIIMediumActive

Pacific Lutheran University

bd_a4c6dc18ca10f485 · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

Jan 26, 2017

Filed

Apr 18, 2017

To disclose

12 weeks

Affected

813state residents only

Linked

3 filings

Confidence

71%

Full breach record for Pacific Lutheran University →3 incidents on file

Pacific Lutheran University notified Washington AG of a phishing incident affecting 813 residents. Unauthorized access occurred Jan 23–Feb 22, 2017, via stolen credentials obtained through a spearphishing link. Data exposed included PII, SSNs, financial account info, and credit card details. PLU engaged forensic experts, notified the FBI, and offered 12 months of credit monitoring.

J jump to incidentP pin to compareR raw source

Incident timeline

undetected · 3 days

discovery → filing · 12 weeks / 82 days

Jan 23, 2017

Begins

Jan 26, 2017

Discovered

Apr 18, 2017

Filed

vs. sector median

+3 wks slower

This filing is one of 3 about the same incident.View merged incident

Linked disclosures

Why this link?

Regulatory filings (2) · sorted by filing gap

Montana State AGbd_4cd9b83e8a39312c2017-04-18Candidate
Massachusetts State AGbd_b9899cc08e915cb12017-04-18Verified

Name: Mullen Coughlin LLC
norm: mullen coughlin

Name: Pacific Lutheran University
norm: pacific lutheran university
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Jan 26, 2017
Breach occurred: Jan 23, 2017 – Feb 22, 2017
Undetected for: 3 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Apr 18, 2017
Affected individuals: 813state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)Government IDFinancial accountFinancial credentialsPII
Data elements: Date of birthFinancial account numberDriver's licence numberSocial Security numberName
WA-stated cause: Cyberattack
WA-stated duration: lifecycle 1-99dexposure 1-99d
WA-stated discovery: Found while ongoing
Attack vector: Phishing
MITRE ATT&CK: T1566.002 Spearphishing LinkT1078 Valid Accounts
Threat actor: ExternalFinancial
Regulator citations: Reported this incident to the FBIProvided written notice of this incident to other state regulators where required
Initial access: phishing_link

During the incident: Launched an investigation
Began working with an outside computer forensics expert
Performed an intensive forensic review of the impacted PLU email accounts’ contents
Reported this incident to the FBI
Provided written notice of this incident to other state regulators where required
Contacted impacted PLU email account holders to encourage them to change their account passwords
Offering potentially affected individuals complimentary access to 12 months of free credit monitoring and identity protection services with Kroll
Changes made: Continues to review its information security practices in an effort to further enhance the security of its systems and better protect against future incidents of this kind
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 12 weeks(82 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: — (clock not assessable for this source)

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Filing propagation · 3 filings · 3 states

View merged incident ↗

Montana State AGApr 18 · first

Massachusetts State AGApr 18 · first

Washington State AGApr 18 · first · this page

Evidence ladder

Leak-site claim

Attacker assertion only. Establishes: claim date, group, alleged victim.

Press / market report

Unlocks: incident narrative, operational impact. Still no compliance clock.

State AG / regulator filingThis record

Unlocks: discovery date, data types, affected count, compliance clock.

SEC 8-K / victim statement

Unlocks: materiality, stated response, full audit trail. Ceiling removed.

Source URL: https://agportal-s3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/databreach/BreachM9694.pdf
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Apr 18, 2017
Raw hash: 236f4036c3545969eefe831dcb7ebab22a506e582f01802eb7d5d68b0d3af1c8

Linked disclosures

Regulatory filings (2) · sorted by filing gap

Reporting entityMullen Coughlin LLC

Victim entityPacific Lutheran University

Incidentdiscovered Jan 26, 2017

Stated responseLaunched an investigation

Complianceclock not assessable

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenanceagportal-s3bucket.s3.amazonaws.com