Skip to main content

Operator dossier

coldlock is a ransomware operator no longer publishing new disclosures. Darkfield has indexed 3 public victims claimed by this operator between March 19, 2020 and May 5, 2020. **Coldlock** is a relatively obscure ransomware group that first emerged in March 2020, operating with apparent financial motivations. The group has maintained a low profile with limited documented activity, having been linked to only three known victim organizations. Little is publicly documented about Coldlock's country of origin or operational structure, though their targeting patterns suggest a focus on critical infrastructure sectors. The group primarily targets organizations in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the energy sector as well as healthcare and public health organizations. Limited public reporting from established security firms means their specific attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and initial access vectors remain largely undocumented in mainstream threat intelligence sources. No major high-profile campaigns or significant law enforcement actions against Coldlock have been publicly reported by CISA, FBI, or major security research organizations. Due to the sparse public documentation and limited victim count since 2020, it is unclear whether the group remains active, has ceased operations, or operates under a different name.

Most-targeted sectors

Most-affected countries

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

All groups

coldlock

3 victims indexed · first seen 6 years ago · last activity 6 years ago

3
Victims indexed
#280 of 364 tracked operators
2m
Active period
Mar 2020 → May 2020
1
Countries hit
top US · 1

At a glance

Status
inactive
First seen
6 years ago
Last activity
6 years ago
Primary sector
Energy · 2 hits

About

**Coldlock** is a relatively obscure ransomware group that first emerged in March 2020, operating with apparent financial motivations. The group has maintained a low profile with limited documented activity, having been linked to only three known victim organizations. Little is publicly documented about Coldlock's country of origin or operational structure, though their targeting patterns suggest a focus on critical infrastructure sectors. The group primarily targets organizations in the United States, with a particular emphasis on the energy sector as well as healthcare and public health organizations. Limited public reporting from established security firms means their specific attack methodologies, encryption techniques, and initial access vectors remain largely undocumented in mainstream threat intelligence sources. No major high-profile campaigns or significant law enforcement actions against Coldlock have been publicly reported by CISA, FBI, or major security research organizations. Due to the sparse public documentation and limited victim count since 2020, it is unclear whether the group remains active, has ceased operations, or operates under a different name.

Timeline

2 months
2020-03-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 12020-05-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 2
2020-03-01T00:00:00+00:002020-05-01T00:00:00+00:00

Top countries

🇺🇸 United States
1

Top sectors

Energy
2
Healthcare and Public Health
1

MITRE ATT&CK

3 techniques · 3 tactics

Tactics

Initial AccessExecutionImpact

Techniques

  • T1566Phishing
  • T1059Command and Scripting Interpreter
  • T1486Data Encrypted for Impact

Recent victims

Loading…

Source

Updated 6 years 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.

Get alerted the next time coldlock posts a victim.

Add coldlock to your watchlist — Pro pings you within 5 minutes of any new coldlock leak-site post, Telegram callout, or affiliate-rebrand inference.