Okta cybersecurity breach wipes out more than $2 billion
Okta’s market valuation has fallen by more than $2 billion since it disclosed a hack of its support systems on Friday. The high-profile incident is the latest in a string of incidents tied to Okta or its products, including a spate of intrusions into Las Vegas casinos that crippled hotel rooms for days.
In a statement Friday, Okta said an unidentified hacking group had accessed client files through its support system. Shares fell more than 11% Friday. In addition to a set of technical identifiers, the company did not provide any further details.
Monday’s trading session ended with a 8.1% decline in the company’s stock.
In major corporations, Okta is a lesser-known name that plays a crucial role in cybersecurity. With more than 18,000 customers, the identity management company offers a single login point that allows companies to access many different platforms from one location. As an example, Zoom uses Okta to provide seamless access to Google Workspace, ServiceNow, VMware and Workday platforms through a single login.
As part of Friday’s announcement, Okta said it had communicated with all affected clients. One of those clients reported a potential breach weeks earlier to Okta.
In a separate post Friday, BeyondTrust said that it had informed Okta’s security teams about suspicious activity in BeyondTrust’s own Okta systems on Oct. 2. In spite of BeyondTrust’s concerns that there was a high likelihood of compromise within Okta support and that we may not be the only customers affected, Okta did not initially acknowledge the incident as a breach after BeyondTrust alerted the company.