Social EngineeringEducationEducationPhishingBECRansom DemandedData ExfiltratedIdentity (basic)Government IDFinancial accountMediumContained

Pacific Quest

bd_c312a9145d62de9f · schema v1 · pii pii-v1

Severity

Medium

Discovered

Apr 10, 2017

Filed

Apr 27, 2017

To disclose

17 days

Affected

3state residents only

Linked

2 filings

Confidence

66%

Full breach record for Pacific Quest →

Pacific Quest notified NH AG of an email spoofing attack on Jan 30, 2017, discovered Apr 10, 2017. Attackers impersonated the Executive Director to obtain 2016 W-2 forms containing names, SSNs, and wage info. 3 NH residents affected. Pacific Quest notified FBI/IRS, provided 3 years credit monitoring via AllClear ID, and is reviewing security policies.

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Incident timeline

undetected · 70 days

discovery → filing · 17 days

Jan 30, 2017

Begins

Apr 10, 2017

Discovered

Apr 27, 2017

Filed

vs. sector median

6 wks faster

This filing is one of 2 about the same incident.View merged incident

Linked disclosures

Why this link?

Regulatory filings (1) · sorted by filing gap

Montana State AGbd_fd21f149f70d39822017-04-27Candidate

Name: Mullen Coughlin LLC
norm: mullen coughlin

Name: Pacific Quest
norm: pacific quest
Industry: Educationllm

Discovered: Apr 10, 2017
Breach occurred: Jan 30, 2017
Undetected for: 70 daysoccurrence → discovery
Materiality determined: —
Notification sent: Apr 27, 2017
Affected individuals: 3state-resident count only
Data types: Identity (basic)Government IDFinancial account
Data elements: Social Security number
Attack vector: Phishing
MITRE ATT&CK: T1566.002 Spearphishing LinkT1078 Valid Accounts
Threat actor: ExternalFinancial
Regulator citations: Notified IRSNotified FBI
Initial access: phishing_link

During the incident: Provided all potentially affected individuals access to three (3) free years of credit and identity monitoring services through AllClear ID
Established a dedicated hotline for potentially affected individuals
Provided guidance on how to better protect against identity theft and fraud
Provided notice of this incident to other state regulators as necessary
Provided notice of this incident to the IRS and the FBI
Changes made: Conducting a full review of cyber security policies
Working to implement additional safeguards
Providing additional mandatory training to employees on safeguarding the privacy and security of information
Source: Quoted from the filing itself, not independently verified.

Time to disclose: 17 days(17 days from discovery to filing)
Compliance flags: — (clock not assessable for this source)

Status: No extraction artifact recorded for this disclosure.

Filing propagation · 2 filings · 2 states

View merged incident ↗

Montana State AGApr 27 · first

New Hampshire State AGApr 27 · 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://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/doj/remote-docs/pacific-quest-20170427.pdf
DisclosureLens links to the originating regulator URL — full filing bodies are not redistributed from public surfaces (§4.5).
Filed at: Apr 27, 2017
Raw hash: 7ab3aa06200e21d99ebe824567e01f7106aef1247c485741e7e635115376248a

Linked disclosures

Regulatory filings (1) · sorted by filing gap

Reporting entityMullen Coughlin LLC

Victim entityPacific Quest

Incidentdiscovered Apr 10, 2017

Stated responseProvided all potentially affected individuals access to three (3) free years of credit and identity monitoring services through AllClear ID

Complianceclock not assessable

Extraction provenanceno artifact recorded

Source provenancemm.nh.gov