Executive Summary
On January 31st, the organization identified a security incident involving the compromise of our Windows Domain Controller, a critical system responsible for authentication, authorization, and identity management across our enterprise. Due to the central role of this system, the incident was treated as a high severity event and we escalated response immediately. Initial investigation determined that an unauthorized actor gained Administrator access to the Windows Domain Controller and installed malicious software. The malicious software can only cause a denial of service to our enterprise environment due to the capability to continually reboot the Domain Controller. However, the attacker had the potential to access or manipulate user accounts, group policies, and authentication mechanisms across the domain. At this time, there is no evidence of data exfiltration or persistent lateral movement beyond the affected systems, but forensic research is still ongoing. Upon detection, the Incident Response team executed containment actions, including removing the malicious software from affected systems, revoking compromised credentials, and restricting domain access to prevent further unauthorized activity. A full forensic analysis was initiated to determine the scope, timeline, and impact of the compromise. We will continue to pursue remediation according to our Incident Response Plan for this type of event which will include:
Mandatory password resets for all domain accounts, review and cleanup of privileged access, validation of Group Policy Objects, and deployment of additional monitoring and detection capabilities. Relevant stakeholders were notified, and the incident was handled in accordance with internal security policies. Regulatory disclosures will occur as required. The organization successfully contained the incident, restored normal operations, and implemented corrective actions to reduce the likelihood of recurrence. A post-incident review is underway to address root causes, improve security posture, and enhance detection and response capabilities moving forward.