The Washington Post has now notified nearly 10,000 employees and contractors that their personal and financial details were exposed following a breach linked to a zero-day vulnerability in Oracle E-Business Suite (CVE-2025-61884). Between July 10 and August 22, 2025, threat actors exploited the flaw to infiltrate portions of the organization’s network and steal sensitive information. The breach preceded an extortion attempt by the Clop ransomware group in late September. On September 29, the Post was contacted by a threat actor claiming access to its systems. By mid-October, Clop publicly claimed responsibility and listed The Washington Post on its Tor-based leak site, accusing the company of neglecting its security obligations.

According to the data breach notification, the stolen information may include names, Social Security numbers, bank account and routing numbers, and tax identification numbers. The attack is part of a broader campaign, with Harvard University, Wits University, and Envoy Air among at least 29 confirmed victims of the Oracle EBS exploitation.

This incident underscores the necessity for organizations to elevate and modernize their cybersecurity posture. Preventing similar breaches requires a defense strategy built on a zero-trust architecture with 100% visibility into the network, endpoints, applications, cloud, and other infrastructure, along with automated threat hunting, attack-surface management, continuous vulnerability scanning and detection, and real-time user behavioral analytics and intelligence. By integrating these capabilities into a cohesive security framework using a platform like NIKSUN, organizations can minimize exposure to supply-chain vulnerabilities, detect intrusions earlier in the kill chain, and ensure faster, more effective containment - significantly reducing operational impact, data theft, and extortion risk.