Emerging Threat Group Black Basta Claims Responsibility for American Dental Association Cyberattack

The American Dental Association (ADA), a dentist and oral hygiene advocacy association headquartered in Illinois, confirmed on April 27, 2022, that it suffered a cyberattack on April 21, 2022. This cyberattack caused ADA to shut down the affected systems, making various services offline and inaccessible. These services include the ADA Store, the ADA Catalog, MyADA, Meeting Registration, Dues pages, ADA CE Online, the ADA Credentialing Service, and the ADA Practice Transitions as well as their email systems. On April 25, 2022, the ADA began notifying members of the “cybersecurity incident,” and detailed that an active investigation is being conducted. BleepingComputer emphasized that this shutdown, “is not only affecting [ADA’s] website, but also state dental associations, such as those in New York, Virginia, and Florida, who rely on ADA’s online services to register an account or pay dues.” An emerging threat group called “Black Basta” has taken responsibility for the attack, publishing a posting on their leak site that details ADA as a victim and samples of the data allegedly exfiltrated in screenshots. The data in the screenshots includes financial information including W2 forms, NDAs, accounting spreadsheets, and information on ADA members. As of April 26, 2022, Black Basta has leaked about 2.8 gigabytes (GBs) of data, which they claimed to be approximately thirty (30) percent of the stolen data. Due to this publishing of potential ADA members’ information, it is recommended that all ADA members maintain vigilance to identify targeted spear-phishing campaigns attempting to gain additional sensitive data, such as login credentials. CTIX analysts are monitoring this incident and will provide further updates as they become available.