Was ISTS hit by ransomware?

ISTS was listed by the Play 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 Play ransomware group?

Play 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 ISTS breach?

Play published data attributed to ISTS. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

← All victims

ISTS (International Scholarship and Tuition Services)

listed as ISTS · Claimed by Play · listed 4 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedFeb 4, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Play
Status: Data leaked
Country: United States
Listed on leak site: Feb 4, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

ISTS (operating via applyists.com) is a 100% women-owned company founded in 1985 that specializes in comprehensive educational assistance program management, including scholarship administration, tuition reimbursement, student loan repayment, childcare reimbursement, and grants and fellowships programs. Based in the United States, the company serves a diverse portfolio of clients including Fortune 500 companies, corporate foundations, state agencies, and public charities. ISTS provides end-to-end administration backed by a proprietary technology platform for program sponsors.

Industry: Educational Assistance Program Management
Employees: 51-200
Founded: 1985

Attack summary

Severity: high — ISTS handles large volumes of student and applicant PII (names, educational records, financial awards data) on behalf of Fortune 500 companies and foundations; data_published status confirms exfiltration and release of likely sensitive personal and financial records at meaningful scale, though no exact data volume was specified.

The Play ransomware group has listed ISTS with a disclosed status of 'data_published', indicating that data claimed to have been exfiltrated from the company has been released. No specific data size or ransom amount was stated in the post.

high

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Scholarship applicant records
Student personal information
Tuition reimbursement program data
Client organization data
Employee records
Financial/awards distribution data

What the group claims

United States

The leak post

captured from the group's site

| Play ransomware HAS NEVER PROVIDED AND DOES NOT PROVIDE THE RaaS, read the FAQ page.WE NEVER WRITES FIRST, IF SOMEONE WRITES TO YOU, THEY ARE SCAMMERS.we'll buy your access: 75tkvxemb6zpyk3fbl3mwm32jklc2sdjacb3kazrioamopbfn2w2z5qd.onionIf we have not responded to you by email within 12 hours, please leave your contact information on the website in the contact tab. |  
| --- |  
| EMA Engineering & Consulting👁️ views: 321added: 2026-05-07publication date: 2026-05-11   | Accessoires Outillage Ltee👁️ views: 280added: 2026-05-07publication date: 2026-05-11   | K & E Distributing👁️ views: 282added: 2026-05-07publication date: 2026-05-11   |  
| Sokolin👁️ views: 7261   | Barnes Solicitors LLP👁️ views: 7182   | Witt UK Group👁️ views: 8181   |  
| Valley Plating Inc👁️ views: 8198   | Dock Pros👁️ views: 8179   | Kivells👁️ views: 8150   |  
| Specflue👁️ views: 8137   | Weber Kracht & Chellew👁️ views: 8180   | Lucky Look👁️ views: 8285   |

Sources

Source

Indexed 4 months 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 Play

**Overview:** Play (also known as PlayCrypt) is a financially motivated ransomware group that emerged in late 2022, conducting targeted attacks against organizations across multiple sectors with a focus on financial extortion. **Origin & Affiliation:** The group's country of origin remains unclear based on public reporting, though they appear to operate independently rather than as a traditional ransomware-as-a-service model. **Attack Methodology:** Play ransomware operators typically gain initial access through compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) credentials and exploit valid accounts, then move laterally through networks using tools like Cobalt Strike before deploying their custom ransomware payload. The group employs double extortion tactics, stealing sensitive data before encryption and threatening to publish it on their leak site if ransom demands are not met. **Notable Campaigns:** According to CISA advisories, Play has targeted over 300 entities globally since its emergence, with significant impacts on critical infrastructure sectors including healthcare, education, and government services, though specific ransom amounts and individual victim details vary in public reporting. **Current Status:** Play remains an active threat as of 2024, continuing to target organizations primarily in North America and Europe according to ongoing security researcher observations and law enforcement warnings. The group has been linked to 1,304 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on November 26, 2022; most recent post June 11, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Also tracked as: PlayCrypt.

Timeline of this disclosure

February 4, 2026ISTS listed by Playon the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by Play

Play has been linked to 1,304 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full Play dossier →

Sector and geography

Geographically, ISTS is reported in United States, a country with 7,392 ransomware disclosures in our corpus.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by Play means ISTS 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 Play'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.