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Operator dossier

keyholder is a ransomware operator no longer publishing new disclosures. Darkfield has indexed 1 public victims claimed by this operator between April 4, 2015. Based on available public documentation, Keyholder is an obscure ransomware operation that was first observed in April 2015, with limited documented activity suggesting primarily financially motivated attacks. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely unknown due to minimal public reporting from major security firms and law enforcement agencies, with no clear indication of whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or as an independent entity. Available intelligence indicates extremely limited activity with only one publicly documented victim, suggesting either a highly targeted approach or a short-lived operation that failed to gain significant traction in the ransomware landscape. The group has demonstrated targeting of emergency services sectors within the United States, though the specific attack methodology, tools, and extortion tactics employed remain undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting. Given the sparse public documentation and lack of recent reporting from CISA, FBI, or major security research firms since the initial 2015 observation, the current operational status of Keyholder remains unclear, with the group likely having ceased operations or remaining dormant.

Most-targeted sectors

Most-affected countries

Recent disclosures by keyholder

All 1 indexed disclosures. Click any row for the full per-victim dossier.

See every disclosure indexed for keyholder

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

keyholder

1 victims indexed · first seen 11 years ago · last activity 11 years ago

1
Victims indexed
#318 of 364 tracked operators
<1m
Active period
Apr 2015 → Apr 2015
1
Countries hit
top US · 1

At a glance

Status
inactive
First seen
11 years ago
Last activity
11 years ago
Primary sector
Emergency Services · 1 hits

About

Based on available public documentation, Keyholder is an obscure ransomware operation that was first observed in April 2015, with limited documented activity suggesting primarily financially motivated attacks. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely unknown due to minimal public reporting from major security firms and law enforcement agencies, with no clear indication of whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or as an independent entity. Available intelligence indicates extremely limited activity with only one publicly documented victim, suggesting either a highly targeted approach or a short-lived operation that failed to gain significant traction in the ransomware landscape. The group has demonstrated targeting of emergency services sectors within the United States, though the specific attack methodology, tools, and extortion tactics employed remain undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting. Given the sparse public documentation and lack of recent reporting from CISA, FBI, or major security research firms since the initial 2015 observation, the current operational status of Keyholder remains unclear, with the group likely having ceased operations or remaining dormant.

References

2 links

External sources curated by the MISP threat-intel community.

Timeline

1 months
2015-04-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 1
2015-04-01T00:00:00+00:002015-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Top countries

🇺🇸 United States
1

Top sectors

Emergency Services
1

MITRE ATT&CK

3 techniques · 3 tactics

Tactics

Initial AccessExecutionImpact

Techniques

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

Recent victims

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Source

Updated 11 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.

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