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Darkfield

Operator dossier

payload is a ransomware operator currently active on public leak sites. Darkfield has indexed 69 public victims claimed by this operator between February 17, 2026 and July 10, 2026. Based on the limited publicly available information, Payload is an emerging ransomware group first observed in February 2026 with a primarily financial motivation, having targeted 19 documented victims across multiple countries and sectors. The group's origin and affiliations remain unclear, with no documented evidence of their operational structure, country of origin, or whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or independent entity. Their attack methodology, encryption techniques, and specific tools used have not been publicly documented by major cybersecurity firms or law enforcement agencies. The group has demonstrated a diverse targeting approach, focusing primarily on victims in the Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Dominican Republic, with particular emphasis on manufacturing, agriculture and food production, transportation/logistics, and telecommunication sectors, though the specific campaigns and ransom demands remain undisclosed in public threat intelligence reports. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation, Payload appears to be currently active but remains a relatively obscure threat actor with insufficient publicly available data to establish comprehensive intelligence assessments from major cybersecurity organizations or law enforcement agencies.

Most-targeted sectors

Most-affected countries

Recent disclosures by payload

All 69 indexed disclosures. Click any row for the full per-victim dossier.

See every disclosure indexed for payload →

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.

Active ransomware operator

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payload

69 victims indexed · first seen 5 months ago · last activity 5 days ago

69
Victims indexed
#92 of 364 tracked operators
5m
Active period
Feb 2026 → Jul 2026
10
Countries hit
top PH · 3

At a glance

Status
active
First seen
5 months ago
Last activity
5 days ago
Onion sites
1 known endpoint
Primary sector
Not Found · 10 hits

About

Based on the limited publicly available information, Payload is an emerging ransomware group first observed in February 2026 with a primarily financial motivation, having targeted 19 documented victims across multiple countries and sectors. The group's origin and affiliations remain unclear, with no documented evidence of their operational structure, country of origin, or whether they operate as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model or independent entity. Their attack methodology, encryption techniques, and specific tools used have not been publicly documented by major cybersecurity firms or law enforcement agencies. The group has demonstrated a diverse targeting approach, focusing primarily on victims in the Philippines, United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Dominican Republic, with particular emphasis on manufacturing, agriculture and food production, transportation/logistics, and telecommunication sectors, though the specific campaigns and ransom demands remain undisclosed in public threat intelligence reports. Given the group's recent emergence and limited public documentation, Payload appears to be currently active but remains a relatively obscure threat actor with insufficient publicly available data to establish comprehensive intelligence assessments from major cybersecurity organizations or law enforcement agencies.

References

1 link

External sources curated by the MISP threat-intel community.

Timeline

2 months
2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 22026-03-01T00:00:00+00:00 · 17
2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:002026-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Top countries

🇵🇭 Philippines
3
🇺🇸 United States
3
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
2
🇲🇽 Mexico
2
🇩🇴 Dominican Republic
1
🇹🇭 Thailand
1
🇮🇹 Italy
1
🇸🇬 Singapore
1
Philippines dossier →United States dossier →United Kingdom dossier →Mexico dossier →

Top sectors

Manufacturing
2
Agriculture and Food Production
2
Transportation/Logistics
1
Telecommunication
1
Financial Services
1
Energy
1
Healthcare
1
Manufacturing dossier →Agriculture and Food Production dossier →Transportation/Logistics dossier →Telecommunication dossier →

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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Onion infrastructure

1 known
  • http://payloadrz5yw227brtbvdqpnlhq3rdcdekdnn3rgucbcdeawq2v6vuyd.onion

Source

Updated 5 days 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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