RansomEXX is a financially motivated ransomware operation that emerged in May 2020, targeting organizations across multiple sectors with a focus on extracting ransom payments through encryption and data theft tactics. The group is believed to operate independently rather than as a Ransomware-as-a-Service model, with suspected ties to Russian-speaking cybercriminals based on code analysis and operational patterns observed by security researchers. RansomEXX operators typically gain initial access through exploiting public-facing applications, particularly targeting vulnerable VPN appliances and remote desktop services, before deploying their custom ransomware payload which uses strong encryption algorithms and is often preceded by data exfiltration to enable double extortion schemes where stolen data is threatened to be publicly released if ransom demands are not met. The group has been responsible for several high-profile attacks including incidents against government entities and major corporations, with documented cases involving ransoms in the millions of dollars, though specific victim details are often kept confidential by affected organizations. Based on recent threat intelligence reporting, RansomEXX continues to maintain active operations as of 2024, with ongoing campaigns targeting the technology and healthcare sectors primarily in the United States and Europe. The group has been linked to 86 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on May 14, 2020; most recent post June 20, 2026. The operation is currently inactive.
Also tracked as: Ransom X, Defray777, Defray-777, Defray 2018.
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, ADDA (adda.io) is reported in India, a country with 381 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.
If your organisation is affected
A listing by Ransomexx means ADDA (adda.io) 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, CERT-In (India), as required for your jurisdiction.
- Monitor for the data appearing on Ransomexx'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.
