Cyber Safety Review Board to Conduct Second Review on Lapsus$

Today, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that the Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) will review the recent attacks associated with Lapsus$, a global extortion-focused hacker group. Lapsus$ has reportedly employed techniques to bypass a range of commonly-used security controls and has successfully infiltrated a number of companies across industries and geographic areas. The CSRB will develop actionable recommendations for how organizations can protect themselves, their customers, and their employees in the face of these types of attacks. Once concluded, the report will be transmitted to President Biden through Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas and CISA Director Jen Easterly.

“The Cyber Safety Review Board has quickly established itself as an innovative and enduring institution in the cybersecurity ecosystem,” said Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas. “With its review into Lapsus$, the Board will build on the lessons learned from its first review and share actionable recommendations to help the private and public sectors strengthen their cyber resilience.”

The CSRB is an unprecedented public-private initiative that brings together government and industry leaders to conduct authoritative fact-finding and to issue recommendations in the wake of significant cybersecurity incidents. The CSRB’s first review focused on vulnerabilities discovered in late 2021 in the widely used Log4j open-source software library. In July 2022, the CSRB concluded that review and published its report, which included 19 actionable recommendations for government and industry. The CSRB does not have regulatory powers and is not an enforcement authority. Its purpose is to identify relevant lessons learned to inform future improvements and better protect our communities.

“Lapsus$ has targeted some of the most sophisticated companies on the planet,” said CSRB Chair and DHS Under Secretary for Policy Robert Silvers. “In the wake of major incidents, the Cyber Safety Review Board conducts authoritative fact-finding and issues recommendations that can have immediate impact on the security of the ecosystem. As a unified effort between government and industry, we will advise on how to repel and respond to these types of cyber-enabled extortion attacks.”

“As cyber threats continue to evolve it is imperative that all organizations recognize that they are not invincible,” said CSRB Deputy Chair Heather Adkins. “The CSRB will review the cyber activity of Lapsus$ in order to analyze their tactics and help organizations of all sizes protect themselves.”

“Lapsus$ actors have perpetrated damaging intrusions against multiple critical infrastructure sectors, including healthcare, government facilities, and critical manufacturing,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly. “The range of victims and diversity of tactics used demand that we understand how Lapsus$ actors executed their malicious cyber activities so we can mitigate risk to potential future victims. We applaud the CSRB for taking on this review to help advance our collective cyber defense.”

The CSRB was established as a mandate in the President’s Executive Order, Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity, to drive a thoughtful approach to learn from cyber incidents. For more information, visit CISA.gov/CSRB.

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