Cyber Incident Victim: Collins Electrical Construction Company
Date:
Jan 2023
Location:
United States of America
Summary
Collins Electrical Construction Company experienced a cybersecurity incident involving unauthorized access to personal information, impacting 567 individuals. The breach, part of a broader wave of attacks affecting five organizations and nearly 150,000 people nationwide, exposed names and sensitive identifiers such as Social Security numbers. Alongside other affected entities, the company offered impacted individuals complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services to mitigate risks. The incident underscored systemic vulnerabilities, with attackers exploiting gaps across multiple sectors before detection.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 2 motives | 2 techniques |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 0 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
Collins Electrical Construction Company experienced a cybersecurity incident disclosed to the Maine Attorney General’s Office on May 17, 2023, alongside four other organizations. The breach impacted 567 individuals across the United States, with a subset residing in Maine. While the exact intrusion method remained unspecified in public disclosures, the incident occurred within a broader pattern of cyberattacks targeting multiple entities on or around January 14, 2023, as evidenced by Sysco Corporation’s parallel breach timeline. Collins Electrical did not publicly identify the specific threat actor or confirm whether ransomware was deployed, distinguishing its incident from Kline & Specter’s confirmed ransomware attack. Exposed data included personally identifiable information (PII), such as names and Social Security numbers, consistent with the types of data compromised across the five breaches reported that day. The company detected the breach at an unspecified date between January and May 2023, though discovery timelines for similar incidents ranged from weeks to months, as demonstrated by Sysco’s 50-day detection gap.
Collins Electrical implemented compensatory measures for affected individuals, offering free cybersecurity services, credit monitoring, or identity protection—a response mirrored by Village Bank, Puma Biotechnology, and Sysco but not by Kline & Specter. The company urged victims to freeze credit reports and monitor financial statements for suspicious activity, aligning with industry-standard post-breach recommendations. No public evidence confirmed misuse of stolen Collins Electrical data for identity theft or fraud at the time of disclosure. The breach’s operational disruption to Collins Electrical’s business functions remained undisclosed, though the company emphasized treating the incident seriously alongside its peers. Systemic vulnerabilities were indirectly acknowledged through collective advisories about persistent cyber risks despite organizational safeguards. Impacted individuals faced potential long-term exposure to identity-related crimes due to the sensitive nature of the compromised Social Security numbers, consistent with risks across all five breaches affecting nearly 150,000 people nationally.