The ransomware ecosystem continues to splinter, with new gangs proliferating in the wake of law enforcement takedowns that have scattered affiliates and prompted criminal rebrands…
Weekly intelligence
Trend-first
Weekly ransomware & data leak landscape
A seven-day view of claim activity, leak escalation, actor concentration, sector shifts, and supporting news context from eCrime.ch.
Window: 2025-08-23 → 2025-08-29 UTC
Choose a report date
Observed events
117
Public claims in the selected week
Data leak indicators
87
74.4% of observed events
Active actors
26
Distinct groups with observed activity
Torrent-linked events
2
Events intersecting with torrent intelligence
What changed this week?
•
Cephalus generated the highest visible claim volume this week, representing 16.2% of observed events.
•
74.4% of observed events in this window showed a public data-leak indicator, which is a stronger escalation signal than a fresh listing alone.
•
Construction was the most represented sector in this window with 8 observed events.
•
4 actor(s) appeared active this week without matching activity in the prior 30-day lookback, suggesting fresh campaigns, rebrands, or resurfacing infrastructure.
•
2 observed events in this week intersected with torrent intelligence, which is useful for understanding data-distribution tactics beyond plain leak-site posts.
•
2 tracked leak sites were still online as of the report date snapshot, giving useful context on current ecosystem churn and monitoring pressure.
Coverage snapshot
As of 2025-08-29 UTC.
Leak sites observed this week
26
Leak sites online near report date
2
Threat actor profiles updated this week
5
Countries represented this week
25
Sectors represented this week
63
Top active actors
By observed claim volumeCephalus
19 events · 8 leak indicators
SAFEPAY
19 events · 19 leak indicators
Qilin
18 events · 10 leak indicators
INC Ransom
9 events · 9 leak indicators
Akira
6 events · 2 leak indicators
DragonForce
6 events · 6 leak indicators
World Leaks
6 events · 6 leak indicators
Dire Wolf
5 events · 4 leak indicators
Emerging or resurfacing actors
No matching activity in prior 30 days- Cephalus 19 events
- Chaos 1 event
- Metaencryptor 1 event
- SECUROTROP 1 event
Country mix
Share of weekly events across the last 12 reporting windows. Click to expand top actors for this week.
United States62
- Qilin16 events · 9 leak indicators
- Cephalus13 events · 7 leak indicators
- SAFEPAY6 events · 6 leak indicators
- Akira4 events · 1 leak indicator
- PLAY4 events · 4 leak indicators
- DragonForce3 events · 3 leak indicators
- INC Ransom3 events · 3 leak indicators
- INTERLOCK2 events · 2 leak indicators
Canada11
- INC Ransom3 events · 3 leak indicators
- Akira2 events · 1 leak indicator
- SAFEPAY2 events · 2 leak indicators
- Anubis1 event · 0 leak indicators
- Metaencryptor1 event · 1 leak indicator
- PLAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
- World Leaks1 event · 1 leak indicator
Germany8
- SAFEPAY7 events · 7 leak indicators
- Lynx1 event · 1 leak indicator
United Kingdom7
- Cephalus2 events · 0 leak indicators
- Dire Wolf1 event · 1 leak indicator
- INC Ransom1 event · 1 leak indicator
- INTERLOCK1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Lynx1 event · 1 leak indicator
- SAFEPAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
Australia3
- Dire Wolf1 event · 1 leak indicator
- INTERLOCK1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Lynx1 event · 1 leak indicator
Italy3
- DragonForce1 event · 1 leak indicator
- SAFEPAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Sarcoma1 event · 1 leak indicator
France2
- DragonForce1 event · 1 leak indicator
- World Leaks1 event · 1 leak indicator
Mexico2
- INC Ransom1 event · 1 leak indicator
- SAFEPAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
Sector mix
Share of weekly events across the last 12 reporting windows. Click to expand top actors for this week.
Construction8
- Qilin5 events · 2 leak indicators
- Akira1 event · 0 leak indicators
- SAFEPAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Sinobi1 event · 1 leak indicator
Law Practice6
- Cephalus3 events · 2 leak indicators
- PLAY2 events · 2 leak indicators
- Dire Wolf1 event · 1 leak indicator
Financial Services4
- INC Ransom2 events · 2 leak indicators
- Cephalus1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Qilin1 event · 0 leak indicators
Hospitals and Health Care4
- Cephalus3 events · 1 leak indicator
- Cloak1 event · 0 leak indicators
Accounting3
- Cephalus1 event · 0 leak indicators
- DragonForce1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Lynx1 event · 1 leak indicator
Government Administration3
- Cephalus1 event · 0 leak indicators
- INC Ransom1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Qilin1 event · 0 leak indicators
IT Services and IT Consulting3
- Cephalus1 event · 1 leak indicator
- Qilin1 event · 1 leak indicator
- SAFEPAY1 event · 1 leak indicator
Machinery Manufacturing3
- INC Ransom2 events · 2 leak indicators
- Qilin1 event · 1 leak indicator
Organization size bands
Share of weekly events by employee-size group across the last 12 reporting windows.
- 51-200 employees 43
- 11-50 employees 31
- 201-500 employees 12
- 2-10 employees 10
- 501-1,000 employees 10
- 1,001-5,000 employees 2
Notable actor profile updates
Active actor records only.
New ransom note observed
No ransom-note change logged in this reporting window.
New actor infrastructure / contact channel
No infrastructure/contact-channel change logged in this reporting window.
New vuln / TTP intelligence
No vuln/TTP change logged in this reporting window.
Recent signal samples
Selected weekly signals.
| Actor | Sector | Country | Leak proof | Seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qilin | Primary and Secondary Education | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Hospitality | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Apparel Manufacturing | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Non-profit Organization Management | Canada | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Construction | Italy | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Primary and Secondary Education | Canada | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | International Trade and Development | Spain | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Consumer Services | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| SAFEPAY | Personal Care Product Manufacturing | Germany | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| Qilin | Media Production | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| Qilin | Construction | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
| Qilin | Construction | United States | Data leak | 2025-08-29 |
News and research context
Recent articles from the same time window.
In recent months, we have observed a growing number of campaigns abusing Microsoft Teams to deliver malicious payloads. These attacks typically involve direct messages or calls or…
Related actor: Sinobi
Attackers initiated their campaign by leveraging compromised credentials from a managed service provider’s (MSP) SonicWall SSL VPN account, which had over-privileged domain admini…
An investigation is underway after a ransomware attack in Lycoming County.
County officials say ransomware was detected on their computer system on August 12.
Investigators late…
Related actor: Blue Locker
Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) recently identified a cybersecurity incident involving a ransomware intrusion targeting parts of its IT infrastructure. The event was detected on…
A personal data breach at a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) contractor has affected some people in Guernsey, officials have said.
The Office of the Data Protection Authori…
Single Central Record, also known as Online SCR, has written to its customers to inform them it has been notified by its software supplier Intradev Limited of a data breach.
Sc…
SEOUL, Aug 28 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Telecom (017670.KS), opens new tab was fined on Thursday about 134 billion won ($96.53 million) after the country's largest mobile carri…
The Office of the Registrar General (ORG), formerly Registrar General's Department, has been hit by a cyber attack, which it says was an attempt to disrupt systems and gain access…
Storm-0501’s evolving techniques lead to cloud-based ransomware | Microsoft Security Blog
2025-08-28
Related actor: Storm-0501
Microsoft Threat Intelligence has observed financially motivated threat actor Storm-0501 continuously evolving their campaigns to achieve sharpened focus on cloud-based tactics, t…
Notes
- Observed events reflect monitored leak-site and extortion activity, not independent confirmation of every intrusion.
- Data-leak indicators reflect visible public leak evidence or escalation, which is stronger than a fresh listing alone.
- Country, sector, and company-size metadata can be incomplete. Unknown values are excluded from the public mix views.
- The goal is to explain concentration, escalation, churn, and patterns — not to build a wall of named victims.
Method
- The page uses a fixed seven-day window based on the selected date.
- Only public-facing actor and event records are included.
- Counts and breakdowns are designed for trend review, not incident confirmation.