Was ombudsman.gov.ws hit by ransomware?

ombudsman.gov.ws was listed by the lockbit5 ransomware operation (Samoa), 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 lockbit5 ransomware group?

lockbit5 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 ombudsman.gov.ws breach?

lockbit5 published data attributed to ombudsman.gov.ws. Darkfield captured the leak post and a screenshot of the listing.

Ransomware victim disclosure

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Office of the Ombudsman – Samoa (OFISA O LE KOMESINA SULUFAIGA)

listed as ombudsman.gov.ws · Claimed by Lockbit5 · listed 3 months ago

Age

since listed · data leaked

Status timeline

ListedMar 30, 2026
Data leakeddate unknown

At a glance

Group: Lockbit5
Status: Data leaked
Country: Samoa
Sector: Public Sector
Listed on leak site: Mar 30, 2026

About the victim

AI dossier — public-source company profile

The Office of the Ombudsman of Samoa (OFISA O LE KOMESINA SULUFAIGA) is an independent government body and the country's National Human Rights Institution, based in Apia, Samoa. It investigates maladministration by government agencies, promotes and protects human rights, and conducts special investigations into misconduct by law enforcement and disciplinary forces. It serves the general public of Samoa across units covering good governance, human rights, special investigations, and corporate services.

Industry: Government Oversight & National Human Rights Institution
Address: Level 2, SNPF Plaza, Savalalo, Apia, Samoa; PO Box 3036, Apia, Samoa

Attack summary

Severity: critical — The victim is a government human rights and oversight body whose data holdings foreseeably include sensitive complaint records from vulnerable individuals, investigation files on police/prison misconduct, and personal data of complainants — constituting regulated/sensitive PII at scale from a public-sector institution. Data is confirmed published.

LockBit 5 claims to have attacked the Office of the Ombudsman of Samoa and has published data (disclosed status: data_published), suggesting exfiltration of files from the office; no ransom amount or data size was stated in the post.

critical

Data the group says was taken

AI dossier — extracted from the leak post

Government agency complaint records
Human rights investigation documents
Special investigations unit files
Corporate/administrative records
Staff and human resources data
Finance records
Correspondence with complainants

What the group claims

Ombudsman Western Australia is an impartial and independent office serving the community by investig...

Sources

Source

Indexed 3 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 lockbit5

Based on the provided data, LockBit5 appears to be a recently emerged ransomware operation first observed in December 2025, representing what may be a new iteration or rebrand within the LockBit ransomware ecosystem, with primary financial motivations evidenced by their targeting of high-value sectors. Given the LockBit naming convention and the timing of emergence, this group likely operates from Eastern Europe or Russia and may represent either a continuation of previous LockBit operations or a new affiliate group leveraging the established LockBit brand, though specific organizational details remain undocumented by major security agencies. While detailed attack methodologies have not been publicly documented by CISA, FBI, or major security researchers, the group's targeting pattern across 157 victims suggests a broad-spectrum approach focusing on technology, manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation sectors primarily in the United States, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Mexico. Due to the group's recent emergence in December 2025, there are no publicly documented notable campaigns or major incidents reported by established threat intelligence sources, though the victim count indicates active operations. The group appears to be currently active based on the recent first observation date, though comprehensive analysis from major security agencies has not yet been published given the short timeframe since emergence. The group has been linked to 278 public disclosures across our corpus. First observed on a leak site on December 7, 2025; most recent post June 11, 2026. The operation is currently active.

Timeline of this disclosure

March 30, 2026ombudsman.gov.ws listed by lockbit5on the group's public leak site

Other recent disclosures by lockbit5

lockbit5 has been linked to 278 public victims on Darkfield. A sample of the most recent:

See the full lockbit5 dossier →

Sector and geography

This disclosure adds to ransomware activity in the Public Sector sector, which has 260 disclosures indexed across all operators we track. Geographically, ombudsman.gov.ws is reported in Samoa.

If your organisation is affected

A listing by lockbit5 means ombudsman.gov.ws 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 lockbit5'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.