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Operator dossier

cephalus is a ransomware operator no longer publishing new disclosures. Darkfield has indexed 19 public victims claimed by this operator between August 26, 2025 and August 29, 2025. Based on available public information, Cephalus is a recently emerged ransomware group first observed in August 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations targeting organizations primarily across the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Ireland. The group has claimed 19 victims since emergence, with no publicly documented country of origin or confirmed affiliations to established ransomware families or RaaS operations by major security researchers or government agencies. Their attack methodology and specific technical capabilities remain largely undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting, though their targeting pattern shows focus on healthcare, business services, financial services, and manufacturing sectors alongside organizations of undetermined industry classification. No major high-profile campaigns, record ransom demands, or law enforcement disruption actions have been publicly reported by CISA, FBI, or established security research firms at this time. The group appears to remain active as of current reporting, though the limited public documentation suggests either highly targeted operations or insufficient analysis coverage by major threat intelligence organizations.

Most-targeted sectors

Most-affected countries

Recent disclosures by cephalus

All 19 indexed disclosures. Click any row for the full per-victim dossier.

See every disclosure indexed for cephalus →

How we know this. Operator profiles on Darkfield are built from continuous monitoring of every leak site the group is known to operate, cross-correlated with community-curated feeds (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch, MISP-galaxy). Status flips from active to inactive when no new disclosure appears for 60 days. MITRE ATT&CK mappings shown in the interactive section below are sourced from CISA, vendor analysis, and the MITRE community catalog — we attribute each technique back to its source. Aliases reflect operator re-brands and affiliate splits.

Inactive ransomware operator

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cephalus

19 victims indexed · first seen 11 months ago · last activity 11 months ago

19
Victims indexed
#163 of 364 tracked operators
<1m
Active period
Aug 2025 → Aug 2025
4
Countries hit
top US · 12

At a glance

Status
inactive
First seen
11 months ago
Last activity
11 months ago
Onion sites
1 known endpoint
Primary sector
Not Found · 7 hits

About

Based on available public information, Cephalus is a recently emerged ransomware group first observed in August 2025, operating with apparent financial motivations targeting organizations primarily across the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Ireland. The group has claimed 19 victims since emergence, with no publicly documented country of origin or confirmed affiliations to established ransomware families or RaaS operations by major security researchers or government agencies. Their attack methodology and specific technical capabilities remain largely undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting, though their targeting pattern shows focus on healthcare, business services, financial services, and manufacturing sectors alongside organizations of undetermined industry classification. No major high-profile campaigns, record ransom demands, or law enforcement disruption actions have been publicly reported by CISA, FBI, or established security research firms at this time. The group appears to remain active as of current reporting, though the limited public documentation suggests either highly targeted operations or insufficient analysis coverage by major threat intelligence organizations.

References

1 link

External sources curated by the MISP threat-intel community.

Timeline

1 months
2025-08-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 19
2025-08-01T00:00:00+00:002025-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Top countries

🇺🇸 United States
12
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
2
🇳🇱 Netherlands
1
🇮🇪 Ireland
1
United States dossier →United Kingdom dossier →Netherlands dossier →Ireland dossier →

Top sectors

Healthcare
4
Business Services
2
Financial Services
2
Manufacturing
1
Public Sector
1
Technology
1
Construction
1
Healthcare dossier →Business Services dossier →Financial Services dossier →Manufacturing dossier →

MITRE ATT&CK

4 techniques · 3 tactics

Tactics

Initial AccessExecutionImpact

Techniques

  • T1566Phishing
  • T1190Exploit Public-Facing Application
  • T1204User Execution
  • T1486Data Encrypted for Impact

Recent victims

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Onion infrastructure

1 known
  • http://cephalus6oiypuwumqlwurvbmwsfglg424zjdmywfgqm4iehkqivsjyd.onion

Source

Updated 11 months ago

Data on this page is sourced from the group's own leak posts, cross-checked with public ransomware trackers (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch), MITRE ATT&CK, and our own Tor and Telegram crawlers. This is a public observatory page — share freely.

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