Clorox sues Cognizant over lax security in 2023 cyberattack

Reuters reports that information technology provider Cognizant has been sued by U.S. multinational bleach manufacturer Clorox over a destructive Scattered Spider attack nearly two years ago that was allegedly caused by significant cybersecurity lapses.

While Scattered Spider typically leverages sophisticated techniques to dupe targeted organizations' IT help desks, the ransomware operation was able to immediately obtain credentials to Clorox's network upon request from Cognizant's Service Desk, claims Clorox. Remediation of the attack, which led to $380 million in losses, has also been hampered by Cognizant's inadequate efforts to restore data or deactivate accounts, according to Clorox. Such claims have been refuted by Cognizant, which emphasized its limited help desk services for the bleach maker. "Clorox has tried to blame us for these failures, but the reality is that Clorox hired Cognizant for a narrow scope of help desk services which Cognizant reasonably performed," said the IT firm in a statement.