Cyber Incident Victim: Cash Medien
Date:
Jun 2023
Location:
Switzerland
Summary
The Cash Medien group was targeted by a DDoS attack that rendered its website inaccessible for several days. The IT team worked to repel the attack, which caused ongoing disruptions and prevented the publication of a newsletter. The attackers did not gain access to any customer or user data at any point, and no further damage occurred beyond the service interruption. The attack was determined to be a deliberate and specific action against the company.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 4 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On or around the morning of Saturday, June 24, 2023, the servers of the Cash Medien media group were subjected to a cyber attack. The attack was identified as a Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack, a method which overwhelms a target's online infrastructure with a flood of internet traffic. The primary and immediate impact of this incident was the complete unavailability of the Cash Medien website, rendering it unreachable for its readers and users. The organization's internal IT team was alerted to the issue when the website became inaccessible that Saturday morning, initiating their immediate response to the situation.
The IT team of Cash Medien began working under high pressure to analyze and repel the ongoing DDoS attack. Their initial efforts to mitigate the attack and restore website functionality were only partially successful. These early countermeasures resulted in brief periods where website access was restored, but the attackers persistently adapted their methods, overwhelming the defenses and knocking the website offline again. This cycle of temporary restoration followed by renewed outage continued for several days, indicating a sustained and determined campaign against the company's online presence.
By Monday, June 26, the disruptions caused by the cyber attack extended beyond the main website, affecting ancillary services. The continued inability to reliably access internal systems or maintain stable online operations directly resulted in the cancellation of that day's scheduled 'Cash. 5vor5' newsletter. This prevented the regular distribution of this publication to its subscriber base, representing a direct impact on the company's core media output and communication channel with its readers. The company issued a formal apology to its audience for this service interruption and the associated inconvenience caused by the website's extended downtime.
A significant turning point in the incident response occurred by Tuesday, June 27. After days of sustained effort, the IT team's mitigation strategies achieved a more stable outcome. The main Cash Medien website was restored to full functionality and became accessible again without any apparent restrictions. However, despite this success, the company provided an update stating that the malicious DDoS attacks were ongoing and had not ceased entirely. This advisory warned users that further intermittent impairments and potential disruptions on the website remained a possibility as the attackers continued their assault.
A key finding from the initial forensic analysis, confirmed by the company, was that the scope of the incident was limited to service availability. The investigation determined that at no point during the attack did the threat actors gain unauthorized access to the company's internal systems or servers. Consequently, the compromise was confined to a disruption of service, and no data breach occurred. Customer and user data remained secure throughout the entire incident, with no access by the attackers.
The nature of the attack was characterized as highly targeted. Cash Medien stated that the DDoS campaign was not a random or opportunistic event but was instead a very specific and deliberate attack aimed at the Cash Media Group itself. The motivation behind the attack and the identity of the responsible threat actors remained undetermined at the time of the public statement. The company did not attribute the attack to a specific group or individual, and no claims of responsibility were mentioned.
In response to the incident, beyond the immediate technical work to restore services, Cash Medien announced its intention to reassess and strengthen its defensive posture. The company stated a planned future initiative to align its IT infrastructure more specifically against such types of cyber attacks, indicating a post-incident review to bolster resilience against similar DDoS threats. The primary focus of the response remained on ensuring the continued stability of the website while acknowledging the potential for further disruptions due to the persistent nature of the attacks.