Lapsus$ group claims involvement in the Okta data breach incident

Based in San Francisco, Okta is a publicly-traded software company. The company provides cloud-based software that enables its customers to manage and secure user authentication into applications. According to its website, the software giant currently has over 15,000 customers.

Earlier on Tuesday, Okta announced that it is investigating reports of a possible digital breach. Post the announcement of the Okta data breach. Its shares went down by nearly 8% in the premarket trading on Tuesday.

Lapsus$, a hacking group, claimed responsibility for the Okta digital breach by publishing screenshots claiming access to an Okta internal administrative account and its Slack channel.


Lapsus$ also claimed that their focus was only on Okta customers post the Okta data breach. Since December, the hacking group claims to have stolen data from several high-profile corporate victims.

Lapsus$ has also explicitly clarified that it is not state-sponsored and the group’s only goal is to earn money.

The Okta data breach could impact thousands of businesses as it comes as a nightmare to Okta as well as its customers.

Who is the Lapsus$ group?

• Much about the group is still a mystery, but this mysterious hacking group appeared in December.
• The hacking group has infiltrated Nvidia, Samsung, and probably Microsoft too
• Their initial victims were from Latin America, suggesting that the group may be Latin America based.
• Currently, there is no proof that the hacking group used ransomware for the Okta data breach.
• According to the cyber security firm, the group may have used disloyal employees to get passwords that resulted in the Okta digital breach.

What was the response from Okta company itself?

Todd McKinnon, the CEO of Okta, took to Twitter to clarify that screenshots released by the Lapsus$ group were from the security incident that happened in January. This Tuesday morning, the CEO tweeted that Okta detected an attempt to steal data and a third party account compromised by a support engineer working on one of the subprocessors. Todd McKinnon also said that the matter was contained and investigated by the subprocessor.

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