Snap, Crackle, Compromise: How Kellogg's Quietly Served Up Employee Data to Hackers
Because nothing says “good morning” quite like a steaming bowl of compromised personally identifiable information, Kellogg’s—the famed purveyor of breakfast joy—has become the latest victim in a depressingly familiar tale of third-party software incompetence, ransomware opportunism, and PR crisis containment.
Yes, folks, WK Kellogg Co. has joined the illustrious ranks of companies whose security is only as strong as the vendor they outsourced it to. This time, the weak link in the chain was Cleo, a “secure” file transfer platform that turned out to be about as secure as a chocolate teapot in a heatwave.
Let’s dig into the crunchy, sugar-coated disaster.
Cl0p’s Greatest Hits: Now Featuring Kellogg’s
For the uninitiated, Cl0p (spelled with a zero, because of course it is) is a ransomware group that specialises in turning third-party vulnerabilities into high-stakes extortion opportunities. These digital parasites have made a habit of zero-day hunting—waiting for vendors to slip up, then diving in headfirst to exfiltrate everything that isn’t nailed down.
And they’re not exactly shy. Cl0p has previously hit MOVEit Transfer (another secure file transfer vendor with a wildly ironic name), Shell, BBC, British Airways, and even Ofcom. Now they’ve added Kellogg’s to their breakfast buffet of breaches.
The Hole in the Cereal Box: What Actually Happened
Here’s the rundown:
Breach Date: 7 December 2024
Discovery Date: 27 February 2025
Delay Between Breach and Discovery: A solid 82 days—nearly three months of blissful ignorance.
That’s a lot of mornings when employees unknowingly eat their cornflakes while cybercriminals sift through their personal information. Kellogg disclosed that the affected systems sent files to HR service providers. These files contained the usual sensitive haul: names, addresses, and—you guessed it—Social Security numbers.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a case of someone misplacing a spreadsheet. This was unauthorised access through a known vulnerability in third-party software—a risk vector that’s become increasingly common yet still routinely underestimated.
We’re Sorry. Here’s a Year of Identity Theft Insurance.
In the most American of responses, Kellogg’s is offering one (1) whole year of identity theft monitoring through Kroll. Because nothing says "we value your privacy" like a time-limited subscription to clean up a mess you didn’t make.
Of course, if you're a UK reader wondering how that translates over here—don’t hold your breath. This is a US-centric breach, but the implications ripple far wider. The lesson? You don’t have to be the one who left the door open to still get robbed.
The Real Villain: Vendor Risk and “Trust Us” Security
Let’s talk about Cleo. The vendor at the heart of this mess bills itself as a secure file transfer solution. Like so many SaaS outfits peddling "digital transformation," Cleo sells peace of mind while quietly sidestepping the realities of modern threat landscapes.
The reality? If your business relies on third-party systems for anything sensitive—especially data movement—and you’re not actively interrogating their security practices, you're not outsourcing risk. You’re outsourcing responsibility. And as Kellogg’s just found out, you can’t outsource the fallout.
We’ve reached the point where vendor management needs to go well beyond the classic checkbox exercise of “do you have a privacy policy?” and into actual technical validation. Do they patch fast? Do they monitor for zero-day exploitation? Have they heard of least privilege access? You’d be surprised how many haven’t.
The Cl0p Cycle: Lather, Rinse, Breach, Repeat
What’s maddening is how predictable this all is.
A vendor builds a product.
It has vulnerabilities.
Cl0p finds them.
Thousands of companies using that product get compromised.
Breach notices go out 2-3 months later.
Everyone shrugs and moves on until it happens again.
At this point, Cl0p could automate the process with a bloody vending machine: insert zero-day, dispense breach.
What UK Businesses Need to Learn From This
Even if your business doesn’t operate in the food and beverage sector, and even if you’ve never heard of Cleo, this breach should have alarm bells ringing loud enough to rattle your ISO 27001 binder off the shelf.
Here's what UK SMBs, especially those handling sensitive data, should be thinking:
1. Third-Party Risk Is Your Risk
If you rely on a vendor to move data, store backups, or run anything client-facing, you should be treating their security as an extension of your own.
2. Cyber Essentials Is Not Enough
This isn’t about ticking off boxes on a compliance checklist. Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus are starting points, not destinations. Regular pen testing, vendor audits, and active threat hunting should be part of your culture.
3. Have an Incident Response Plan
And test it. Knowing what to do after a breach is just as important as trying to prevent one. Spoiler: “send out a Kroll subscription” isn’t a plan.
4. Hold Vendors Accountable
Too many businesses sign contracts with minimal scrutiny. You should be asking for evidence of security practices, breach notification timeframes, and actual performance SLAs.
What’s for Breakfast Tomorrow?
In an era where ransomware is a business model, and data breaches are a monthly event, incidents like Kellogg’s are becoming less of a surprise and more of a statistical inevitability. But that doesn't mean we have to accept them as normal.
This isn’t just about some cereal company getting breached. It’s about every organisation that still operates under the fantasy that software marked as “secure” actually is. Or that third-party providers are somehow immune to exploitation because they’re “in the cloud.”
Newsflash: the cloud is just someone else's server. And in this case, it might as well have been on fire.
So while Kellogg’s tries to scrape its reputation off the floor, the rest of us should be seriously re-evaluating where our data goes, how it gets there, and what we’re doing when (not if) things go wrong.
Final Thoughts
Kellogg’s got Clopped. It happens. But your business doesn’t have to be next. Start asking uncomfortable questions. Vet your suppliers. Test your incident response. And for the love of digital hygiene—stop assuming anyone else is going to protect your data for you.
| Source | Link |
|---|---|
| Cyber Security News | https://cybersecuritynews.com/kelloggs-data-breach/ |
| Bleeping Computer | https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/food-giant-wk-kellogg-discloses-data-breach-linked-to-clop-ransomware/ |