Was Model Engineering hit by ransomware?

Model Engineering was listed by the Cicada3301 ransomware operation (UAE), and stolen data was published on the group's leak site. Darkfield tracks this disclosure with the original leak post, screenshot and group context.

Who is the Cicada3301 ransomware group?

Cicada3301 is a ransomware operator tracked by Darkfield. See the full operator dossier for its known victims, sectors targeted, IOCs and leak-site infrastructure.

What data was leaked in the Model Engineering breach?

Cicada3301 published data attributed to Model Engineering. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Model Engineering

Claimed by Cicada3301 · listed 2 years ago

21m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedSep 24, 2024
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Cicada3301
Status: Data leaked
Country: UAE
Sector: Manufacturing
Listed on leak site: Sep 24, 2024

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Model Engineering is an UAE-based architectural and engineering firm founded in 1972, specializing in design and project development across diverse sectors including high-rise buildings, luxury residential, logistics, hospitality, and healthcare. The company operates from Dubai with additional offices in Ras Al Khaimah, Abu Dhabi, Bangalore, Manila, and Ahmedabad, and has completed over 720 projects across the Emirates.

Industry: Architectural & Engineering Design Services
Address: Al Hudaiba Awards Building, Block B, Office No. 711-713, Mina Road, Jumeirah 1, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Founded: 1972

Attack summary

Severity: medium — Data has been published by the threat actor with a functional leak link (disclosed status confirmed as 'data_published'), but no specific sensitive data categories have been confirmed (e.g., no mention of PII at scale, financial records, or regulated information). The company handles architectural/engineering data which may include client details and project plans of varying sensitivity.

Cicada3301 claims to have exfiltrated data from Model Engineering and published it on their leak site. The group has not specified the nature or scope of exfiltrated data, only providing a download link to the leaked files.

medium

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Project designs and documentation
Client information
Business records
Internal communications

What the group claims

Founded in 1972, Model is a dynamic group of Architects and Engineers driven by a bold mission: to create projects that perfectly blend innovative designs, client requirements with sustainable design principles. Our experienced team has successfully handled a wide range of projects, from high-rise towers and luxury homes to infrastructure planning, mixed-use facilities, cutting-edge logistics and industrial facilities. With a rich portfolio of over 720+ diverse projects spanning across the emirates, Model stands at the forefront of design and project development. We are dedicated to pushing the boundaries of design and innovation while helping clients bring their visions to life. Downloads: http://cicadacnft7gcgnveb7wjm6pjpjcjcsugogmlrat7u7pcel3iwb7bhyd.onion/designbymodel-dataleak

Sources

Victim sitedesignbymodel.com
Leak posthttp://cicadabv7vicyvgz5khl7v2x5yygcgow7ryy6yppwmxii4eoobdaztqd.onion/xc1f4rw86tnadb22filpjh8lmh9r3913

Source

Indexed 2 years ago

This page surfaces a public ransomware disclosure indexed by Darkfield. Original posts come from the operator's own leak site; we cross-check against ransomware.live, RansomLook and RansomWatch where applicable. Share this URL freely.

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Disclosure context

About Cicada3301

Cicada3301 is a recently emerged ransomware group that began operations in June 2024, primarily motivated by financial gain through extortion activities targeting organizations across multiple sectors. The group's origin and affiliations remain largely undocumented in public threat intelligence reporting, with limited information available regarding their operational structure or potential connections to other cybercriminal organizations. Based on observed targeting patterns, Cicada3301 has demonstrated a preference for attacking business services, technology, manufacturing, and financial sector organizations, with their operations concentrated primarily in English-speaking countries including the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, as well as extending to Spain and Singapore. The group has successfully compromised approximately 75 known victims since their emergence, though specific details regarding their attack methodologies, initial access vectors, encryption techniques, and extortion tactics have not been extensively documented in publicly available threat intelligence reports from major cybersecurity firms or government agencies. Given the limited public documentation available from CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security researchers, the group's current operational status, technical capabilities, and specific attack infrastructure remain largely uncharacterized in open-source intelligence reporting. As of the most recent observations, Cicada3301 appears to remain active in conducting ransomware operations, though comprehensive analysis of their tactics, techniques, and procedures awaits more detailed public reporting from established threat intelligence sources. The group has been linked to 75 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on June 20, 2024; most recent post September 4, 2025. The operation is currently inactive.

Timeline of this disclosure

September 24, 2024Model Engineering listed by Cicada3301on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Cicada3301

Cicada3301 has been linked to 75 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Cicada3301 dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Manufacturing sector, which has 3,681 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Model Engineering is reported in UAE, a country with 81 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Cicada3301 means Model Engineering appeared on a ransomware extortion site and data attributed to it has been published. If this is your organisation, or a supplier you depend on, the priority is to confirm the intrusion and contain it before the window to act closes.

Engage your incident-response team and preserve forensic evidence before remediating — do not wipe affected systems first.
Force a password reset and revoke active sessions for exposed accounts; rotate any credentials, API keys or certificates that may have been in the stolen data.
Assess regulatory notification duties (GDPR, NIS2, sector regulators) — many carry a 72-hour reporting clock from awareness.
Monitor for the data appearing on Cicada3301's leak site and across paste and breach channels, and brief downstream partners who may be exposed through you.

How we know this. Darkfield monitors public ransomware leak sites continuously, archiving every new disclosure and the data later released against the victim. Each entry on this page is sourced from the operator's own publication and cross-checked against complementary OSINT feeds (RansomLook, ransomware.live, RansomWatch). We do not collect or host stolen data — only the metadata, timestamps and screenshots needed to make the public disclosure searchable and accountable. Records here are corrected when the original post is edited, retracted, or merged with another disclosure.