Was Columbia University Information (Dental) hit by ransomware?

Columbia University Information (Dental) was listed by the Global Secret Group 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 Global Secret Group ransomware group?

Global Secret Group 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 Columbia University Information (Dental) breach?

Global Secret Group published data attributed to Columbia University Information (Dental). Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Columbia University

listed as Columbia University Information (Dental) · Claimed by Global Secret Group · listed 3 days ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedAug 14, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Global Secret Group
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Sector: Healthcare
Listed on leak site: Aug 14, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Columbia University is a leading research and educational institution based in New York with over 250 years of history. It serves as a major center for academic inquiry, research, and graduate/undergraduate education across multiple disciplines.

Industry: Higher Education
Address: New York, US
Employees: 20000-25000
Founded: 1754

Attack summary

Severity: high — Confirmed exfiltration of 296 GB across institutional systems at a major university. Data likely includes PII and health records (dental services mentioned). Scale and sensitivity of university data warrants high severity, though specific proof files/screenshots count not stated.

Global Secret Group claims to have exfiltrated 296 GB of data (283,387 files, 11,268 folders) from Columbia University's information systems, including data from dental/health services. The group published the data on August 16, 2026.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

University information systems data
Dental services records
Student/staff records (inferred)

What the group claims

The leak post

captured from the group's site

Country: New York, US | Website: columbia.edu | Revenue: $6.6 Billion | Industry: Colleges & Universities | Employees: 20.000-25.000 | Properties: 296 GB (283,387 Files, 11,268 Folders)
For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world. At the core of our wide range of academic inquiry is the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries and service to society.
RELEASE: Aug 16, 2026 — 12:00 UTC
ENDS: Aug 15, 2026 — 12:00 UTC

Sources

Victim sitecolumbia.edu
Leak posthttp://o5lsqyar7ox25z734k6zaxt2vf7bsyi4q5rturi5iyxzqo3ica7bjsad.onion/project/40/

Source

Indexed 3 days 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 Global Secret Group

Global Secret Group is a ransomware threat actor first observed in July 2026, with operations consistent with financially motivated cybercrime based on their targeting profile and victim patterns. The group has claimed or been attributed to 28 known victims across a relatively short operational window, suggesting an emerging or actively expanding operation. Given the limited public documentation available from CISA, FBI, Mandiant, or other reputable security research organizations at this time, a comprehensive technical profile cannot be fully established. What is known from available victim and targeting data indicates the group predominantly focuses on organizations in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus, with a clear sectoral preference for Technology, Retail and E-Commerce, Energy and Utilities, Professional Services, and Financial Services — a targeting pattern broadly consistent with financially motivated ransomware actors seeking high-value data and organizations with both the ability and incentive to pay ransoms. The cross-sector and multi-national targeting pattern may suggest opportunistic intrusion methodology rather than a narrowly scoped, nation-state-aligned operation, though this assessment remains preliminary pending further public disclosure by authoritative sources. As of the time of this writing, Global Secret Group's operational infrastructure, affiliation with any ransomware-as-a-service ecosystem, specific malware tooling, and current active status have not been formally attributed or publicly documented by major threat intelligence authorities, and this profile will require revision as additional intelligence becomes available. The group has been linked to 39 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on July 26, 2026; most recent post August 17, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: GlobalSecretGroup.

Timeline of this disclosure

August 14, 2026Columbia University Information (Dental) listed by Global Secret Groupon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Global Secret Group

Global Secret Group has been linked to 39 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Global Secret Group dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Healthcare sector, which has 2,608 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, Columbia University Information (Dental) is reported in United States, a country with 3,162 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Global Secret Group means Columbia University Information (Dental) 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 Global Secret Group'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.