What Happened?
On December 29, 2022, Slack was notified of suspicious activity on its GitHub account. Upon investigation, the company discovered that a limited number of Slack employee tokens had been stolen and misused to gain access to the company's externally hosted GitHub repository. The threat actor downloaded private code repositories on December 27.
Slack's investigation also revealed that the threat actor did not access other areas of Slack's environment, including the production environment, and they did not access other Slack resources or customer data. There was no impact to Slack's code or services, and the company has also rotated all relevant credentials as a precaution.
What You Can Do to Protect Yourself
If you use Slack, there are a few things you can do to protect yourself from similar attacks:
Use strong passwords and two-factor authentication for all of your online accounts, including Slack.
Be careful about what information you share on Slack. Avoid sharing sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card numbers.
Keep your Slack software up to date. Slack regularly releases security updates, so it's important to install them as soon as they're available.
What Slack Is Doing to Protect Its Users
Slack is taking a number of steps to protect its users from future security incidents. These steps include:
Investing in security research and development.
Working with third-party security firms to conduct penetration tests.
Implementing security best practices, such as least privilege and zero trust.
Slack is also committed to transparency with its users. The company publishes regular security updates and incident reports. Slack also encourages users to report any suspicious activity to the company.
Conclusion
The Slack security incident of December 2022 was a reminder that no company is immune to cyberattacks. However, by taking steps to protect yourself and using a secure communication platform like Slack, you can help to mitigate the risk of being a victim of a cyberattack.
