Disclosure context

About Cuba

The Cuba ransomware group is a financially-motivated cybercriminal organization that emerged in February 2021 and has since conducted attacks against at least 105 known victims globally. The group operates as an independent ransomware operation with suspected ties to Russian-speaking cybercriminals, though their exact country of origin remains unconfirmed by law enforcement agencies. Cuba ransomware operators primarily gain initial access through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials, exploitation of Microsoft Exchange vulnerabilities, and phishing campaigns, subsequently deploying their custom Cuba ransomware payload which encrypts victim files while exfiltrating sensitive data before encryption as part of their double extortion strategy. The group has particularly targeted organizations in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Australia, and Belgium, with a notable focus on critical infrastructure sectors including healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and energy companies. According to FBI reporting, the Cuba ransomware group has demanded ransom payments ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars from their victims. As of recent threat intelligence assessments, the Cuba ransomware group remains active and continues to pose a significant threat to organizations across multiple sectors and geographic regions. The group has been linked to 105 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on February 3, 2021; most recent post February 1, 2024. The operation is currently inactive.

Also tracked as: COLDDRAW, Fidel.

Timeline of this disclosure

December 27, 2022pu.edu.lb listed by Cubaon the group's public leak site

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Education sector, which has 694 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, pu.edu.lb is reported in Lebanon.

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.

Ransomware victim disclosure

← All victims

Phoenicia University

listed as pu.edu.lb · Claimed by Cuba · listed 3 years ago

41m

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

Listed
Dec 27, 2022
Data leaked

At a glance

Group: Cuba
Status: Data leaked
Country: Lebanon
Sector: Education
Listed on leak site: Dec 27, 2022

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

Phoenicia University (PU) is a non-profit, private, and nonsectarian institution of higher education based in Lebanon. The university is officially licensed and comprises six colleges including Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Law. It operates as a multi-faculty academic institution serving students across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate disciplines.

Industry: Higher Education

Attack summary

Severity: high — Data has been published (confirmed exfiltration and release) by the Cuba group from a higher education institution, which likely holds PII of students, staff, and faculty, as well as potentially sensitive financial and academic records. The published status elevates this beyond medium despite the absence of a stated data size.

The Cuba ransomware group claims to have published data from Phoenicia University, with the disclosure status marked as data_published, indicating exfiltration and release of data rather than an encryption-only event. No specific ransom amount or data size was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

University administrative records
Student data
Faculty and staff records
Financial records
Academic documents

What the group claims

Phoenicia University (PU) is a non-profit, private, and nonsectarian officially licensed institution of higher education. The University comprises six colleges: Architecture and Design, Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, Law...

Sources

Victim sitepu.edu

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.