Was Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly hit by ransomware?

Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly was listed by the alphv ransomware operation (United States), 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 alphv ransomware group?

alphv 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 Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly breach?

alphv published data attributed to Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Autonomous Flight Technologies, Inc.

listed as Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly · Claimed by Alphv · listed 3 years ago

32m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedNov 19, 2023
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Alphv
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Technology
Listed on leak site: Nov 19, 2023

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Autonomous Flight Technologies, Inc. (AFT) is a privately held UAS operator based in Roanoke, Virginia, specializing in commercial unmanned aircraft systems for industrial and commercial applications. Founded in 2012 and FAA-approved for commercial operations since 2015, AFT provides aerial photography, videography, industrial mapping, construction assessment, and emergency response services across the United States. The company operates two main divisions: audio/visual production and industry-specific UAS services.

Industry: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) & Aerial Services
Address: Roanoke, Virginia, US
Founded: 2012

Attack summary

Severity: medium — Data exfiltration by a known ransomware group (ALPHV) with public disclosure; however, no specific sensitive data types (PII at scale, financial records, government contracts) are explicitly confirmed in the available post text, and the company operates in a non-critical sector with limited apparent regulatory data holdings.

ALPHV claims to have accessed Autonomous Flight Technologies' systems and exfiltrated company data. The group has published the victim's data online as part of a ransomware disclosure, though specific details on the scope of exfiltration or encryption are not detailed in the post excerpt provided.

medium

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Company records
Business operations data
Client information
Internal communications

What the group claims

Incorporated in 2012, Autonomous Flight Technologies (AFT) began as a research and development firm specializing in manufacturing and progressing advancement for automated Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for use in the United States. Originally based in Roanoke, Virginia; AFT has worked with numerous companies throughout the eastern seaboard as well as many colleges including Virginia Tech In October of 2015, AFT received an exemption status from the FAA to conduct commercial UAS operations throughout the United States. Our exemption, No. 13319; was approved for the following areas of work: Industrial Mapping, Agricultural Mapping, Research and Development, Emergency Response and Operations Training, sUAS Operator Training, Real Estate Photography and Cinematography, and Product Demonstrations. Since receiving our exemption status, AFT is committed to providing UAS flight operations for the above-mentioned industries. Our work has evolved our company into two basic departments: The first being a full audio and visual production company. We have provided production for college campuses, private corporations, professional design and cinematography firms and film companies, as well as news and media outlets. The second department is geared towards industry specific needs. Whether it being aggregate assessments, construction BIM progression and assessment, industrial inspection and mapping, engineering firms, SARS and emergency management evaluation, or agricultural inspection; we have yet to find a specific industry the does not benefit from the services we provide. Early in the beginning of 2016, AFT joined and supported fellow UAS industries along with Virginia Tech’s (VTTI) department to create a local AUVSI charter for the SWVA corridor. Since founded, Ridge & Valley AUVSI, has worked diligently with Gov. Terry McAuliffe to establish our SWVA as a “UAS Hotbed” advocating the advancement of UAS industry in the area. In doing so, the charter recently presented figures estimating local UAS industry will create more than 3500 new jobs and adding $2.7 billion to the state’s local economy within the first decade. Autonomous Flight Technologies, Inc (AFT) is a privately owned and operated company specializing in the advancement of small scale aircraft related to the UAV/UAS industry. For over 15 years we have stayed in the forefront of this expanding industry by obtaining, flying, and researching all aspects regarding small unmanned aircraft carrying payloads of up to 10 pounds/ 4.5 kilograms. AFT is fully authorized to operate UAS commercially across the United States. Our crews offer everything from professional filming and photography to industry specific mapping and monitoring. No job too big or small, having multiple crews allows us to serve multiple clients across the country. Autonomous Flight Technologies is working diligently to create industry specific packages to suit any and all needs. Autonomous mapping, environmental monitoring, surveillance, aerial photography and filming, and much more. You provide us with the your aerial needs and we can build the aircraft to suit.

Sources

Source

Indexed 3 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 alphv

ALPHV, also known as BlackCat or Noberus, is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in September 2021 and rapidly established itself as one of the most sophisticated and prolific ransomware operations observed by researchers at Mandiant, CISA, and the FBI. The group is suspected to have Russian-speaking origins and operates as a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platform, with well-documented links to former affiliates of the DarkSide and BlackMatter ransomware operations, suggesting a continuity of personnel and tradecraft across these successive rebrand events. ALPHV is technically distinguished by its use of Rust-based ransomware — an uncommon choice at the time of its emergence — which enabled cross-platform attacks against Windows, Linux, and VMware ESXi environments; the group employs multiple initial access vectors including compromised credentials, phishing, and exploitation of unpatched vulnerabilities, and routinely conducts double and triple extortion by exfiltrating sensitive data prior to encryption and threatening victims with public disclosure on their dedicated leak site, with some cases involving additional pressure through direct contact with victim customers and regulators. ALPHV has claimed responsibility for high-profile attacks against MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Reddit, and healthcare provider Change Healthcare — the latter representing one of the most disruptive cyberattacks on the U.S. healthcare sector on record, with a reported ransom payment of approximately $22 million — and has accumulated over 731 known victims across the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany, with particular concentration in business services, manufacturing, healthcare, technology, and financial services sectors. In December 2023, the FBI and international partners conducted a disruption operation against ALPHV's infrastructure and released a decryption tool for victims; however, the group subsequently attempted to rebrand and continued operations before an apparent final collapse in March 2024, following an alleged exit scam against affiliates after the Change Healthcare ransom payment, with law enforcement officially attributing the group's infrastructure seizure shortly thereafter. The group has been linked to 731 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on September 9, 2021; most recent post March 3, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Also tracked as: BlackCat, Noberus.

Timeline of this disclosure

November 19, 2023Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly listed by alphvon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by alphv

alphv has been linked to 731 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full alphv dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Technology sector, which has 3,549 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly is reported in United States, a country with 3,115 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by alphv means Autonomous Flight - @autonomousfly 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.
Report the incident to your national CERT, CISA (United States), as required for your jurisdiction.
Monitor for the data appearing on alphv'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.