Accellion data breach
Around Mid December in 2020, several hacker group going by the names FIN11, UNC2546, and CLOP, infiltrated Accellion systems using SQL injection, affecting over 25 companies and leaking around 200 customers personal information.[1]
Background
A financially motivated hacker group going by FIN11 has conducted malware and ransomware attacks against financial, retail, and medical related organizations since 2016.[2] It shares close ties to CLOP, a hacker group that since 2016 has ran phishing campaigns and malware distributions[3], and UNC2546, an unknown hacker group that been shown to conduct malware attacks and SQL injection.[4][5]
Accellion is a file sharing service provider
The Attack
Around Mid December, FIN11 targeted Accellion 20 year legacy File Transfer Appliance(FTA), deploying 2 zero-day-vulnerabilities that granted access to installation of a custom web shell named DEWMODE[6], allowing for SQL injection into Accellion systems. On 16 December, Accellion became aware of the vulnerability after a customer reported the vulnerability, and shorty after releasing a patch within 72 hours on 20 and 23 of December 2020.[7] On 12 January, the company released a statement announcing the attack and urging customers to update to their newely released communication platform kiteworks.[8] On 20 January, hackers conducted more attacks after finding new vulnerabilities that included 2 more zero-day-vulnerabilities[9], however after the vulnerability were noticed by Accellion customer service on 22 January, they were shortly patched three days later.[1][7]Around late January, victims started receiving ransom emails that threatens to publish the stolen data. If the victim didn't respond, they would receive several more warnings messages urging the victim to respond.[10] The company would implement another patch on 28 January that enhanced the security of the 23 December patch. On 01 February, Accellion released an statement detailing the attack and adding no new vulnerabilities were detect at the time.[11] A last patch was implemented on 01 March in collaboration with Mandiant (subsidiary to Google) that fixed two additional vulnerabilities.[9] Accellion would announce termination of its 20 year legacy File Transfer Appliance, giving customers till 30 April to make any changes to their licensing agreements.[12]
List of responses from affected organizations
After being informed of the attack, several companies decided to terminate their agreements with Accellion and reach out to potentially affected customers.
Singtel
In 11 February 2021, Singtel released a statement announcing a investigation in collaborations with security experts and Cyber Security Agency of Singapore and made plans to cease operation of Accellion systems.[15] On 17 February, Singtel released another statement detailing the results of their investigation, concluding that around 129,000 customers name, date of birth, mobile number, and home address was leaked, along with employees and staff financial information. The company highlighted plans to contact affected customers, and issuing an apology.[16]
"While this data theft was committed by unknown parties, I’m very sorry this has happened to our customers and apologise unreservedly to everyone impacted. Data privacy is paramount, we have disappointed our stakeholders and not met the standards we have set for ourselves"
Kroger
Qualys
City of Toronto
CXS
Centene
Trillium
Kitework [removed later]
https://kiteworks.com/sites/default/files/trust-center/accellion-fta-attack-mandiant-report-full.pdf
Shell
University of Colorado
Morgan Stanley
https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/08/the-accellion-data-breach-continues-to-get-messier/
Lawsuit
[17] https://www.scworld.com/analysis/accellion-reaches-8-1m-settlement-in-data-breach-lawsuit
Consumer response
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Burgess, Monica (31 October 2025). "Accellion Data Breach". Huntress. Retrieved 25 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Stark, Genevieve; Moore, Andrew; Cannon, Vincent; Leary, Jacqueline; Fraser, Nalani; Goody, Kimberly (14 October 2020). "Threat Research FIN11: Widespread Email Campaigns as Precursor for Ransomware and Data Theft". Fire Eye. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ↑ Brubaker, Nathan; Zafra, Daniel; Lunden, Keith; Proska, Ken; Hildebrandt, Corey (15 July 2020). "Financially Motivated Actors Are Expanding Access Into OT: Analysis of Kill Lists That Include OT Processes Used With Seven Malware Families". Fire Eye. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ↑ Ropek, Lucas (23 February 2021). "What We Know About the Hackers Behind the Accellion Data Breach". Gizmodo. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Stone, Jeff (22 February 2021). "FireEye IDs hacking group suspected in Accellion, Kroger breach". Cyberscoop. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Accellion Compromise Impacts Many Targets Including Healthcare Organizations" (PDF). hhs.gov. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ 7.0 7.1 Neill, Rob (3 March 2021). "Accellion hack: timeline clarifies when and how customers were notified". ARN. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Press Release Accellion Responds to Recent FTA Security Incident". Kiteworks. 12 January 2021. Archived from the original on 18 January 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 "ACCELLION, INC. FILE TRANSFER APPLIANCE (FTA) SECURITY ASSESSMENT" (PDF). Kiteworks. 1 March 2021. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
- ↑ Ilascu, Ionut (22 February 2021). "Global Accellion data breaches linked to Clop ransomware gang". BleepingComputer. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Press Release Accellion Provides Update to Recent FTA Security Incident". Accellion. 1 February 2021. Archived from the original on 2 February 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ↑ "Accellion" (PDF). Kiteworks. 27 March 2026. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
- ↑ Panettieri, Joe (14 January 2022). "Accellion Vulnerabilities, Cyberattacks, Victims, Lawsuits: Customer List and Status Updates". MSSP Alert. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ Firch, Jason (14 May 2024). "Accellion Data Breach: What Happened & Who Was Impacted?". Purplesec. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Media Statement relating to Accellion's FTA Security Incident". Singtel. 11 February 2021. Retrieved 27 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ↑ "Singtel addresses data breach, moves to support affected stakeholders". Singtel. 17 February 2021. Archived from the original on 16 January 2026. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
- ↑ Coble, Sarah (17 January 2022). "Accellion Reaches $8.1m Data Breach Settlement". Infosecurity Magazine. Retrieved 26 March 2026.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)